Were it so Easy

Disclaimer: Any and all characters are not my own, and neither is the Mass Effect and Halo franchise.

Rated M just to be sure. (Possible Violence).

Chapter 1 - Another Day, Another Mission

Mike B312, formally known as Noble Six, has failed. The Spartan's combat effectiveness and survival chance now reduced to a margin laughable enough to instigate some form of dark humour from the clutches of Lucifer's domain. Six had fought as hard as he possibly could, slaughtering a few hundred Covenant in a conflict that lasted for many hours. But even Spartans had limits, and the lone wolf knew that he could not fight for long, besides…

Reach has fallen.

The lone wolf was angered by his failure to complete his most important mission. The thought of failing to preserve the lives of Noble Team; his family, angered him tenfold. His armored gauntlets groaned slightly as he clenched his fists. As if to answer the Spartan, the roar of several elites followed by the guttural barks and growls of grunts and jackals suddenly could be heard through the orange tinted dust storm that flashed red occasionally from the Covenant glassing beams.

Reach has fallen.

The Spartan, clad in black standard issue Mark V MJOLNIR armor most commonly worn by Spartan IIs, slowly marched towards the sounds emitted by his next victims. He marched slowly with precise strides that would have left any grizzled drill sergeant proud through the paradise turned wasteland that was littered with hundreds of dead Covenant and 2 dozen of their destroyed vehicles.

Reach has fallen.

Six stopped… his combat instincts lit up like a christmas tree… he rolled to the side in a blur. The familiar green projectile of a fuel rod cannon soared past the Spartan and impacted an abandoned UNSC military building... the blast melting through the reinforced steel like butter. Noble Six completed his evasive maneuver with a crouching stance. He then shouldered his M392 DMR, looked through the 3x scope… and fired. The first two rounds impacted the unprepared grunt that fired the heavy weapon at Six, while the second round pierced clean through the head of a jackal marksman. Before the corpses even hit the ground, the Spartan let loose a storm of precise shots downing a pair of minor elites and 5 more grunts. Six prepared to fire again at a trio of jackals, but the only response he got out of the well worn weapon was a few clicks. The lone wolf could already hear the imminent approach of more hostiles.

Reach has fallen.

Unperturbed, the super soldier cocked his right arm back and released a fragmentation grenade towards the shielded jackals. The explosive device landing a foot behind the group of birdlike creatures and exploded, impaling the jackals with thousands of pieces of white hot metallic fragments. The super soldier checked his motion tracker… and spun around fast enough to give any normal human whiplash. The sight that met the lone wolf was a squad of 5 white ultra elites and 2 zealots clad in their famed crimson armour.

It's over.

Noble Six observed as a zealot accompanied by two ultras charged at the Spartan wielding their energy swords, the weapons glowing a deadly white-blue colour. Noble Six could feel his adrenal glands pumping more and more adrenaline into his bloodstream as the threat drew closer. The super soldier began to enter a state appropriately dubbed 'Spartan Time', The elites' full on sprint now slowed to nothing more than a fast paced jog. The hyper lethal vector waited for his opponents to get within striking range… and lashed out, the kick, despite his grave injuries, half killed the leftmost ultra as it slid across the ground… 10 meters away. The Spartan then leapt over the zealot as it tried to cut Six in half. Soaring through the air, the Spartan performed a midair somersault, landed, rolled, and retrieved the knocked out ultra's sword, stabbing it in the process.

The now dead warrior's comrades roared a deafening roar powerful enough to put a sonic boom to shame. The remaining two warriors charged again with Six attempting to dodge… and failing as the zealot swiped at the Spartan, connecting with his helmet. He recovered quickly and withdrew his M6 magnum pistol, firing a handful of rounds at the ultra, Noble six lashed out at the zealot who attempted to block it only to have the Spartan switch tactics, duck low, and cut off the warriors legs. The zealot roared in pain and fell to the ground, now useless in combat. The Spartan turned his attention to the ultra who became a victim to Six's side arm as a 12.7mm bullet impacted its brain, effectively ending its life. The remaining zealot screamed in its language and pointed at the super soldier. The remaining warriors charged and discharged their plasma weapons… at this range they could not miss. Six, without his shield, and with a heavily damaged suit of armor was hit 5 times. Although the suit wasn't completely breached; a testament to the durability of MJOLNIR. Unfortunately, the damage was done; the Spartan collapsed to the ground, he still continued to defy the Covenant's might as he fended off the attackers with elbows and kicks. Six suddenly found himself unable to defend himself as an elite on each side pinned his arms to the ground. The silent lone wolf watched the zealot stalk closer with its energy sword ignited.

I have failed

It then plunged the plasma sword into his heart

Lieutenant Spartan B312's eyes shot open as he tried to keep his breathing under control. Six sat up and observed the area for possible threats… only to relax slightly at the sight of his living quarters; he is onboard the UNSC Infinity.

He sighed 'I'm not on Reach… I'm alive, the year is 2558, the war is over.' Thought Six as he slipped out of his bed and began to put on his skinsuit.

Suddenly, a soothing English male voice spoke; "Good morning Noble Six, sleep well?" Six instantly recognized the voice to belong to his AI; Sigma; or by serial number, SGM 0327-9. "Negative Sigma, It was not as peaceful as I had wanted it to be." Replied Six with that same emotionless face and deep monotone voice as usual.

Sigma revealed his avatar on a data chip that rested on a table next to Six's bed. Sigma's avatar was that of a World War One British Officer.

The AI simply frowned, "Six you really should see someone about those nightmares, ever since Reach they have been growing in frequency and intensity. After what you have accomplished alongside the Master Chief, you deserve a break and a chance to be normal."

Noble Six simply ceased his tasks and stared at the AI this time frowning back, "I am a Spartan Sigma, my purpose is to fight. I don't need to rest, however, I should speak to a professional to fix this mental weakness. I must be ready to complete any and all future operations, I must maintain my validity as a valuable asset." Said Six, returning to applying his skinsuit.

Sigma on the other hand felt a pang of sadness; Noble Six was a human, not a damn machine, yet here he is very much succeeding in imitating the famous terminator in human disguise. How could Six stand behaving like a machine all this time; normal humans would probably go insane trying to behave like him. It just isn't natural and Sigma suddenly felt the desire to slaughter every single human that decided to turn Six's childhood into a military training regime… and into this cold, emotionless super soldier that stood before him. The AI wanted to say something back to the hard at work Spartan, to tell him that he is wrong and is a human with the potential to return to normal civilian life, although 'return' wouldn't be the proper word since Six has been in the military since the age of 6. But the Spartan was in his element, Captain Lasky has asked Six to be on standby for possible deployment to Covenant controlled territory on the elite homeworld of Sanghelios. Noble Six needed to stay one hundred percent focused on the mission, giving him something else to think of; like his childhood, would likely reduce his combat effectiveness. It was time to go to work.

Spartan B312, now dressed in his grey skinsuit, grabbed a M6 magnum and 2 spare magazines for self defence. 'Never hurts to be prepared', thought Six as he practically marched out of his quarters toward the mess hall. A lot of the crew stared at the sight of the Spartan; his 6'10 incredibly muscular frame along with his placid face was an intimidating sight. But this time it wasn't as much fear, instead a lot of the crew had expressions of respect, pity, and awe. Noble Six was as big a war hero as the Master Chief, the two Spartans fought alongside each other from the halls of Cairo station to the shores of Halo and even the Ark. Six respected the Spartan II immensely, they were the top soldiers in the UNSC only rivalled by each other.

The hungry super soldier arrived at the mess hall, only to find it pretty much empty, as if the damn ship was infected by the flood. Six mentally grimaced, the flood was the only thing that really scared him; the fact that a single spore can result in the lost of an entire planet within hours was horrifyingly unnerving. The flood is gone however, thanks to the actions of the elites, the Chief, and Six himself. Six looked to his left and saw a familiar figure sitting at one of the tables alone. The man was strong looking, although slightly thinner than Six, he still looked like he could snap any human in two. The man was completely bald and had a fistful of arrows tattooed on the left side of his head.

Six instantly recognized the man as Spartan Jun-A226. The lone wolf smiled; besides himself, Jun is the only member of Noble Team to survive Reach. Jun was tasked by commander Carter to escort doctor Halsey to CASTLE base during the battle of Reach. How Jun made it off the planet was a mystery to even Six but he was just relieved to see his brother in arms is still alive.

Jun looked up from his meal and smiled at the sight of the Lone Wolf. "Good morning Six, glad to see you up, have a seat".

Six pulled out a chair and sat in front of a second tray filled to the brim with a mountain of scrambled eggs and bacon across from Jun.

"You knew I was coming Jun?" Asked Six referring to the mysterious tray of food that seemingly appeared out of nowhere like a hallucination in the desert.

Jun smirked as Six scrutinized the tray. "What can I say, you are becoming more and more predictable with your routine by the day." Six chuckled at Jun's comment. "Have you been informed of our possible deployment on Sanghelios?" questioned Six, his voice becoming more serious now.

"Of course, I have been informed but no detailed briefing made it through." Jun was frustrated at the lack of information and so was Six.

"It's not like them to simply mention the 'possibility' of us being deployed without any information on the mission directive." said Six, as if such a thing could not be even be remotely possible in the laws of science.

Jun agreed, "We haven't been called to report to Lasky, we haven't even been given any possible objectives or targets."

Six decided to change the topic, realizing they will get nowhere with this,"We won't know until informed otherwise Jun, how are the Spartan IVs?" this elicited a sigh from Jun. "Their training is going well but they are still like kids; arrogant and think they are invincible in their new power armor."

When the Human Covenant war ended, the UNSC recognized the need for more Spartans. However, the previous process of recruiting or abducting children was unethical and the original Spartan Program was too expensive to yield thousands of Spartans. So the UNSC authorized the Spartan IV program; this program allowed for adults from existing special forces branches to enlist. The new Spartans used GEN 2 MJOLNIR armor. While effective, it was not as durable as GEN 1, the good thing was that it could be mass produced unlike GEN 1 suits where a single suit costed as much as a small starship. Spartan IV augmentations were more numerous but the results paled in comparison to the IIIs and IIs. A Spartan IV is much more physically superior than a normal human, but a Spartan II or III could toss one around like a sack of feathers.

"They lack teamwork, skill and most of all, discipline." stated Jun, his frustration evident enough to stick out like a steak to a rottweiler's nose.

"They weren't raised the way we were Jun." Six reassured.

"They will never best us in combat, but it is nice to have the Spartan population now numbering in the hundreds." Jun calmed down.

"You are right Six, where we have quality, they have quantity. Besides some of the Spartan IV teams performed very well throughout recent engagements namely Crimson, Shadow, and Eclipse fireteams."

It was true, many of the Spartan IV teams have taken Jun's lessons to heart and are as effective as ever - still falling short of Spartan II and III effectiveness but worthy of an honourable mention regardless.

Six began to dig into his breakfast. "Have we been informed of our destination?" Jun sighed once again as he finished his breakfast.

"No, ONI seems content with keeping us in the dark, not that they haven't ever done that mind you. It's just they never withheld critical information like this. They are putting the entire UNSC Infinity at risk."

Six agreed with this; ONI can be very secretive, even going as far as killing UNSC personnel just to keep a few secrets from the public.

This, however, was just ridiculous, there are seventeen thousand people onboard the most advanced ship humans have ever built and ONI hasn't said a word about what they were getting into. Six knew that ONI had stealth prowlers at their destination to provide reconnaissance for the arriving UNSC ships. They haven't deployed any distress beacons which means they are still active…

All they could do was wait for what was to come.

Sigma currently was not happy; upon being summoned to the bridge by Roland; the Infinity's AI, Sigma finally learned the plight of their situation… and ONI's ignorance.

Upon contacting the ONI scouts in system, they reported that the Covenant remnants had at their disposal an entire fleet of three dozen ships orbiting near the planet. It wasn't just the fact that ONI only requested the Infinity to go in there alone without a proper force assessment on the enemy that pissed him off. No, it was the fact that ONI didn't even confirm the classification of the enemy ships, it could have been a fleet of corvettes or a fleet of supercarriers for all they knew. Not just that, but the ONI scouts were responsible for relaying information from the Arbiter's allied scouts working on the ground. So to top things off, the Infinity had no idea what to expect from the enemy fleet or enemy troop formations on the ground, hell, the Infinity wasn't even given a primary objective. Lord Hood was going to have someone's head when he learns of his mistake by loaning the Infinity to ONI.

"Dammit, what could be so important to ONI that could allow them to justify jeopardizing the safety of the UNSC Infinity." Said Lasky with a stern voice as he was pacing along the bridge. Roland's avatar suddenly appeared on the holotable, it was an orange World War 2 pilot.

"Sir, we should be expecting to be hailed by the ONI prowler group at any moment according to the schedule." Captain Lasky stopped pacing and looked at the AI.

"Whatever they have to say better be worth my time." Said Lasky, the frustration evident in his voice.

Lasky was a likable captain that respected his men and always tried to avoid situations involving high casualties. Despite the criticism that the other captains and admirals bombard Lasky with, Lasky's methods are arguably the most effective and efficient, always ensuring the best results with minimum casualties. His passive aggressiveness a force to be reckoned with on the chessboard of naval combat, there's a reason why HIGHCOM assigned Lasky to command Humanity's most powerful warship.

Lasky was no fool and knew that ONI is hiding something.

"Sir, we're being hailed." replied a communications officer. "Whoever is hailing us is using a unique algorithm encryption, I can't access it."

Lasky furrowed his eyebrows. "Roland, see if you can't crack that encryption."

"Yes sir" replied the AI rather enthusiastically at the idea of being given a challenge.

Sigma talked for the first time after being summoned to the bridge. "Roland, do you require assistance in cracking the encryption?" Roland stared at Sigma.

"Sigma, this is a 50 exabyte encryption, I am capable of cracking a 64 zettabyte encryption if need be, really I feel offended at the idea of needing help doing what would take me 5 seconds." Roland pouted, rather childishly.

Lasky smirked." Now, now ladies, the both of you have your uses, you're both beautiful just the way you are, no need to cat fight here."

Roland ignored the annoying captain. "Sir, I've cracked the connection, it appears to be the captain of the lead ONI prowler attempting to hail us."

What the hell?

"Roland how the hell do these prowlers have access to an algorithm this advanced?"

"I don't know sir, patching them through to you now."

A screen lit up with static, then it took form to show a rather young man wearing a captain's uniform. He had standard regulation hair length and stood at parade rest ready to salute if you even looked at him the wrong way for more than a second.

The man finally spoke

"Sir, Captain Daniels of the UNSC Where Eagles Land standing by to provide in-system enemy assessment."

Lasky inwardly rolled his eyes but remained stoic. "Let's just cut to the chase captain, can you explain to me why the hell you were communicating to us with an algorithm that is unknown to the rest of the UNSC?"

"It's complicated sir but I'll explain." the captain continued. "To put it bluntly, the Covenant troops on the planet appear to have the ability to identify our communication algorithms, long range telemetry indicates that the Covenant have several outposts with tracking equipment that once identifying the presence of UNSC communication, can triangulate our exact coordinates without us knowing."

Lasky furrowed his eyebrows. "That's grim news captain, but how do you know that's what's going on?" Asked Lasky, not really convinced at the moment.

"Because the other three prowlers accompanying us were wiped out the minute they tried to communicate with us, thankfully, it appears that their encryption techniques can't adapt to encrypt new communication algorithms." Replied the captain rather stoically.

Lasky appeared to be convinced with the answer and proceeded to press on with the questioning. "Thank you captain, I'd like to know why ONI wanted the UNSC Infinity to jump to the elite homeworld."

"Yes captain, that's the reason I've hailed you in the first place. Anyways, the Arbiter has requested the UNSC to assist in wiping out Covenant presence on Sanghelios. To do that, we need to slip in a battlegroup past Covenant early warning systems. Scans indicate that a Covenant fleet of three dozen ships is standing by 10,000,000 kilometers away from the planet to assist Covenant ground troops. Alerting said fleet will result in unnecessary casualties as we attempt to wipe out the planetside hostiles."

Captain Lasky was surprised at the numbers of the Covenant fleet; apparently the UNSC have greatly underestimated the Covenant naval might.

"Okay Daniels, how do we bypass the early warning system?"

Daniels smiled. "That's easy sir, the Infinity has stealth capable transports, we could drop off a team of Spartans to neutralize the Covenant's command and control center which also acts as the central node for the early warning system."

Lasky nodded. "Okay Daniels, but tell me this; why has ONI withheld all mission data before sending us off to Sanghelios when we had no clue what we were getting into?"

The ONI captain replied almost instantly. "ONI believes that the Covenant have a forerunner artifact based on what our spies told us. We trust you sir, which is why we sent you in. Sending in a team to knock out the command and control center will not only seriously help our elite allies, but also secure potential forerunner technology. We'd be killing two birds with one stone basically."

Lasky took a sip of coffee before continuing. "So this forerunner artifact must be extremely important if our beloved Admiral Parangosky decided to risk the most expensive thing humanity has ever built by sending it on a mission with zero intel."

"Yes sir, regretfully I don't know what the artifact is, but since it is the only item of forerunner origin, it would be fairly easy to locate based on the readings we got from scanning the area."

Lasky decided to end the conversation since no more mission critical data would be acquired. "Thank you captain, we will arrive in system in about 24 hours, from there we

will consolidate and execute the mission." and with that, the screen went black.

Captain Lasky, now satisfied with the current situation, turned to Sigma's avatar. "Sigma, could you please inform Noble Six and Noble Three that they are needed at the bridge?"

"Of course sir, informing Noble Team right now." came the AI's response as his hologram vanished into thin air.

The entire gym was deadly silent as all eyes fell on the boxing ring that was now occupied by the two deadly warriors, the tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife as each of them held an unwavering gaze that seemed intent on peeling through the fabric of reality itself. The two combatants circled each other with slow and precise strides, their footsteps quieter than a church mouse half a kilometer away.

The Spartans have been sparring for about one hour and not one of them are willing to back down.

"Let's hope they don't kill one of us by accident, I'd rather live to fight the real enemy instead of getting mangled by a Spartan." one of the marines whispered as Six continued to analyze Jun's defense for any weaknesses.

Although preferring to tackle targets from a long distance, Jun, like every other Spartan, was an excellent hand-to-hand fighter. Six wasn't going to underestimate him in the slightest. Since he is a sniper, Jun's patience is nigh infinite, being used to waiting for his kill anywhere from a few hours or minutes, to even a few days. But Six matched him in that regard, as a lone wolf that enjoys stealth, Six has waited days just to cross a small field without being spotted.

Jun lashed out with a kick to which Six responded by ducking underneath and following up with a deadly uppercut towards Noble's vigilant eye. The sniper leaned back… perfect.

The lone wolf fired a front kick at Jun's abdomen, Jun flew back into the ropes at the edge of the ring but quickly recovered, dodging a fatal left hook from the lone wolf.

All of this occurred in as little as two seconds, the super soldiers were nothing but blurs to the audience, even the most seasoned veterans did not register what happened until a second later.

"The hell just happened?" Six heard one of the marines ask, with pure shock and awe in his voice.

The super soldiers ignored the shocked soldiers, and continued their sparring session, throwing punches and kicks mixed in with grappling maneuvers… the Spartans remained untraceable through their supernatural speed and reflexes. With a reaction time estimate of about 20 milliseconds, normal combatants would be moving in slow motion - even without the help of adrenaline coursing through their veins allowing them to enter Spartan Time. But in the eyes of a Spartan, a fellow super soldier would be moving a little faster than 'normal'.

Jun threw a punch at Six, but the lone wolf caught it. Six put his right leg behind Jun, pinned Jun's arm to his chest, then struck him with his palm. The sniper stepped back and tripped over Mike's leg, but Jun merely rolled with the momentum and was in a crouching stance in a split second… only to take a roundhouse kick to the chin.

Noble Three was on the ground with Six somehow already in position to perform a rear naked choke. Six squeezed lightly, then slowly added more pressure until Jun tapped his arm, signalling his defeat.

The lone wolf got up off the ground and helped his fellow Spartan up.

"A little rusty are we Jun?" said Six sarcastically as the corners of his mouth twitched upwards to form a smile.

Jun chuckled. "don't worry Six, I was just going easy on you, next time I will win." Six's smile grew a little larger.

Jun's presence is really the only thing that can make Six smile. Ever since Reach, Six thought he was the last of Noble Team, Six was devastated and consumed with rage at the loss of the only real team he ever had. Six was an outcast, even among Spartan's, after Spartan Kurt-051 pulled him and a few select Spartan IIIs out of Beta Company, Six worked by himself to tackle his missions.

That changed until he was assigned to Noble Team. At first Six grimaced at the idea of having to rely on others even if he was relying on Spartans. Six wanted to have complete control over the outcome of the mission, he did not want to fail just because someone was an unreliable asset and couldn't keep up.

Mike was wrong

He realized that he had a family of super soldiers just like him. They fought, won, and bled together, and after the battle they would sit back and joke and laugh, actually laugh. Six never felt more human in his life… he cared deeply for his team. When he thought that they were all dead… Six just snapped… snapped with enough energy to make a nuclear reactor seem redundant.

At Least Six still had Jun, and he'd be damned if he let anything happen to him.

Six looked back at Jun. "Hey Jun, you-" Six was cut off by Sigma's voice. "Noble Six, Noble Three, captain Lasky requests that you report to the bridge."

Jun looked at Six, their facial expressions now serious and full of anticipation. "Copy that Sigma, on route to the bridge."

"Let's not keep the captain waiting Jun." Six sighed, the battlefield was his home, but he really wished to spend some time catching up with Jun. 'I have a duty to attend to, good soldiers follow orders'. The two super soldiers gracefully bypassed the marines and crew that now moved out of the way of the intimidating Spartans.

Good soldiers follow orders.

Captain Lasky waited patiently for Infinity's best assets to arrive at the bridge.

Lasky was regretting sending the two Spartans in. They deserved better after going through hell and back to save humanity and ultimately, the galaxy.

Damn, the least I could do is let them reacquaint with each other but no, I had to agree with Captain Daniels and send them off on another high risk mission.

Lasky pitied Noble Team the same way he pitied the Chief. They are heroes of humanity… no… they are heroes of the galaxy and while the public and the soldiers respected them beyond imagining the top brass simply brushed it off and gave them a dozen more missions to do.

Why can't they just get a break, they've been fighting this war their whole lives. Why can't HIGHCOM just let them take a break and… be human for once?

Lasky's thoughts were cut short as the door to the bridge opened and two massive humans stepped in. On the right stood Jun, standing at 6'9, with a powerful muscular form Jun was intimidating. His blue eyes unblinking showing years of experience as a marksman. Jun was bald and his skin was darker for a Spartan; Spartans spend a lot of time in their armor usually, meaning they get no sunlight which makes them very pale.

On the left stood Noble Six. His hyper lethal classification should be enough to make anyone shiver like a leaf in the wind in his presence. Six stood an inch taller than Jun and was a little more muscular. His skin was slightly paler than Lasky's. Six sported a few scars on his face, most of them about as small as surgical cuts. The one scar that stuck out was a deeper cut that ran from his forehead, past his left eye, and halfway down his cheek. It gave him the aura of 'I'm a badass' and that wasn't even mentioning his stone expression and unwavering brown-eyed gaze. He could probably stare down the sun if he wanted to. Six's expression couldn't have been more emotionless if it had been carved from stone.

The two super soldiers offered a crisp salute in perfect unison and at the same time firmly stated. "Captain Lasky, Noble Team reporting as requested."

"At ease, please, relax." The two Spartans stood at parade rest.

Lasky inwardly sighed. 'I guess relax isn't in a Spartan's vocabulary.'

"Ok I'm just going to cut to the chase here." Lasky started, looking at both Spartans as he spoke.

He continued. "The Covenant have a fleet of at least three dozen ships about 10,000,000 kilometers on our portside. We have confirmed that the Covenant have a command and control center that acts as a central node for their early warning system and is capable of easily detecting our fleet and alerting our presence to that fleet. If they are alerted, we risk unnecessary casualties."

Noble Six spoke up. "Sir, interrogative; what is our mission objective, and what is the enemy troop strength planetside?"

"Your mission objective is to neutralize the enemy command and control center. Not only will it ruin their leadership in the region, but it will render their early warning system useless. We don't have a bead on enemy troop strength, but expect a small army." Lasky Replied.

Suddenly the holotable lit up displaying Sanghelios along with a small red area representing the enemy controlled region.

A separate hologram suddenly displayed a typical Covenant citadel.

"This is your target, the command and control center is powered by a powerful plasma reactor, overloading it will result in an explosion powerful enough to wipe out not only the citadel, but also the surrounding area in a five kilometer radius, so you have to run fast upon overloading the reactor."

Lasky looked back up to the Spartans before continuing. "We can't bring in a large force for risk of being detected easier, it's just the two of you, but I'm confident that you two can pull it off."

"Sir, status on Blue Team?" asked Jun, obviously confused as to why the legendary Spartan Blue Team isn't joining them in this mission.

"Blue Team is currently taking part in several classified operations under ONI's command." answered Lasky, not too happy himself that ONI had to pull out Blue Team to do their dirty work.

"I understand the risks, but currently you are the most valuable asset that I have, no one else can pull off a mission like this. I know that the two of you are more than capable of completing this mission." Reassured Lasky, his eyes twinkled with each word that exited his mouth.

"Understood sir, we won't let you down." said Six, his voice now filled with determination.

"One more thing, ONI has detected an artifact of forerunner origin somewhere within your mission area. In fact, this is one of the main reasons ONI wants us here, apparently, the artifact is extremely important to them." Explained Lasky, his voice flat and face neutral.

He continued." Despite its value, consider it a secondary objective. I'm not risking the two of you over the whims of Admiral Parangosky, not if I can help it."

"Understood sir, we'll see what we can do about the artifact." Jun's slavic accent stated with a perfect, clear tone that stated 'consider it done'.

Lasky smiled. "Good, we still have 22 hours until the Infinity reaches Sanghelios so you are free to do as you please. However, I expect you to be ready one hour before we reach our destination, dismissed."

"Sir yes sir." Came the response of the super soldiers, simultaneous enough to be mistaken for telepathy.

The Noble members marched out of the bridge with long practised strides more precise than a manufacturing robot.

Lasky sighed, just another suicide mission for Noble Team, damn, what is wrong with me?

Most Spartans spend their downtime training or in cryosleep, Six was not different - at least when it came to the training part. Spartans would train in all forms of combat, from all forms of martial arts, to weapons maintenance, vehicle operations, and even mathematics which included basic slipspace calculations. Such practices were all meant to increase their combat prowess - to win.

But on this rare occasion, Six wasn't training - oh no… he was just thinking, his mind whirred, as he lost focus on his surroundings within one of the Infinity's many large gyms.

Flashback

They just kept coming. The Covenant wanted to kill one of the feared demons, but Six wasn't ready to die without a fight. The lone warrior stood in the middle of at least three hundred dead Covenant warriors all killed in brutal and efficient methods.

At Least three hundred…

Truth be told, Six did not know how much he killed. It could be three hundred or it could be a thousand, he no longer knew. His entire brain, save for the parts dedicated to combat, completely shut off, as if hit by an EMP bomb. The dust storm blew past Six, its orange tinted winds carrying off the souls that died defending reach.

Another Phantom dropship flew off to the west… just like all the other dropships.

Six, despite, his 100% percent combat focussed status, was able to notice this.

'Perhaps the Covenant have a drop off point for their troops' thought Six as he once again unslung his Designated Marksman Rifle.

Thoughts of hope managed to seep into his mind, could it be possible? To escape Reach and take the fight to the enemy for once? He would need a distraction.

It took him about a minute, but the lone wolf formulated a plan. It went as thus: The covenant believed him to be broken, and out of hope, willing to simply fight to the death. They didn't expect the Spartan to make an serious movement to vacate the area.

The Spartan visualized the route to be a giant L, he then imagined a line from the top of the L drawn down to the edge of the bottom line to form a right triangle; a hypotenuse. The top of the L would represent the enemy drop zone, which is actually the aszod shipyard. Using prior knowledge, the Spartan estimated the length of the 'line' to be about 12 km long. Noble Six then sprinted 6 km north; that would represent the bottom line.

Now satisfied, Six calculated the length of the hypotenuse using the simple pythagorean theorem. Six estimated the shortest distance from the drop zone to his new position to be 13.4 km. His best estimates had him to believe that the elites would be the first to arrive.

The Spartan knew that the elites would be the first to arrive. From experience, they'd probably be running at 50 km\h to save energy but get to the battle quickly. So six converted 50 km\h to 13.8m/s. He then divided the hypotenuse by the new velocity. Finally, Six divided that number by 60 to get a rounded answer of 16.2 minutes; that's how long it will take the elites to reach his new position - perfect.

'Never thought those math lessons so many years ago would save my life'.

Six has effectively calculated the time it would take for the next group of elites to arrive. But first, he needed to get the attention of those already present.

The super soldier fired off a stolen plasma rifle towards the general direction of the drop zone, the blue bolts of plasma disappearing into the dust storm. 'That should get their attention.' thought Six as he hid behind a particularly large rock; about the size of a warthog.

The Spartan waited until he heard elite chatter. Six was about to formulate a plan of attack when he realized that he still had the active camouflage device that he acquired from a dead stealth elite.

'Well this makes thing easier.' thought Six with a tiny smile. The lone wolf cloaked; invisible thanks to the dust storm.

The super soldier analyzed his next victims… only 5 minors led by an ultra in white armor. 'Must be a recon team trying to confirm my location.' theorized Six as he made his way to the ultra who was talking with one of the minors as the rest fanned out into a defensive formation.

Noble Six approached the ultra from behind, careful not to make a single noise, and violently drove his combat knife into the top of the ultra's skull, killing it almost instantly with its brain being punctured by the shear force.

Before the ultra hit the ground, even before the other elite could alert his presence to his comrades, Six became a blur and shoved his knife into the throat of the elite to silence it. The cold super soldier then twisted the knife and the warrior crumbled to the ground.

Unfortunately, another elite turned around, spotted Six, and opened fire with its plasma rifle, the others followed suit. Six rolled to the side faster than the normal eye could track and stood back up with a plasma rifle in one hand and a plasma grenade in the other.

Noble Six unleashed a hail of superheated plasma upon his foes. The the bolts of plasma struck the shield of one of the minors several times before the shield collapsed, revealing its blue armor the the lone wolf's weapon. The plasma stuck to the elite's armor like glue and melted away armor and flesh until the warrior dropped to the ground.

The Spartan threw the plasma grenade at two of the elites on the right and charged at the third, firing at it at point blank range… the Spartan did not miss.

The plasma grenade exploded, blue superheated plasma saturating a 3 meter radius melting through the armor and killing one elite, and critically injured the other elite.

The final warrior looked at the demon, before speaking through its communication equipment. It took all of Six's willpower to go against his training just this once and allow the elite to give away his position; the enemy must know his position in order for his ruse to work.

The elite, now having finished reporting Six's position simply stared at the Spartan's golden visor, as if trying to peel it off with its deadly glare. The Spartan didn't even flinch as it put a plasma bolt through its head, effectively sending it into the afterlife.

The Spartan hid behind the same rock and waited, he didn't have to wait long until a trio of phantoms headed off towards the drop zone. 'Let's hope this works.' thought Six as he cloaked and swiftly moved across the open ground along the bottom 'line'.

He made it to the vertical line of his imagined triangle, this area was littered with rocks of all sizes; perfect cover in the dust storm. The gray armoured super soldier sprinted at a speed of 60 km/h.

Six arrived a few minutes later at a ridge overlooking the drop zone. To his surprise, the drop zone wasn't as defended as he expected. The Covenant underestimated him terribly, no matter… Six was going to take full advantage of the mistake his enemy made.

The drop zone had several Covenant barriers as well as 4 tripod mounted plasma cannons and the whole camp was made up of a platoon sized defence force; or 30-40 hostiles, led by a zealot and a pair of hunters.

That could be a problem.

Hunters are the Covenant's heaviest shock troops. Standing at 12 feet tall and weighing 12,000 pounds, hunters are the most intimidating individuals in the Covenant military. Hunters are made up of a colony of lekgolo worms encased in weapons and armor. Each hunter in a pair represented by one half of a lekgolo colony. Each hunter is equipped with a two ton shield that can deflect anti-tank missiles… as well as cut a Spartan in half if hit by it. Their primary weapons however, is a heavy fuel rod cannon that can melt through tank armor with enough hits. Six did not want to test his shields against such a weapon.

The Spartan has indeed felled many hunters, however, not with this many troops supporting them, and not in his injured condition. In the center of the drop zone was a trio of unoccupied phantoms.

What caught the Spartan's eye was a rather large amount of the camp's occupants gathered around a massive stockpile of weapons and explosives.

'Is that for me?' thought Six as he eyed the particularly large number of grunts and jackals gathering around the stockpile.

Six quietly snorted; the Covenant might as well have declared war on Six rather than humanity. That's enough ordnance for a small army, all the more reason for Six to get off this planet.

An idea formed in Six's head; all he needs is a grenade.

Six pulled the pin on his last frag grenade, said grenade soared through the air towards its intended target. The small explosive clattered against the ground and exploded. That explosion was suddenly dwarfed into insignificance as a terribly wonderful array of colors danced across the sky vapourizing more than half the personnel in the camp, including one of the hunters.

Noble Six in an instant charged towards the zealot, firing off his plasma weapon. Several bolts struck its shield as the warrior rolled to the right. The Spartan's plasma weapon overheated, but Six wasn't done yet. The super soldier threw the weapon at the elite, who swatted it away only to be struck in the face by an armoured gauntlet. The mass, strength, and speed of the Spartan ensured that the elite was dead.

The lone wolf was lucky to catch such an inexperienced zealot off guard; more seasoned warriors would be more of a problem.

Six continued to run and gun with the plasma rifle he picked up off the ground, easily slaughtering the grunts and jackals as he made his way to his escape.

A low, powerful roar suddenly rolled across the destroyed camp… the massive twelve foot walking tank slowly loomed towards the supersoldier that claimed the life of his bond brother.

'Damn, I forgot about him.'

Six could take on the hunter with what he's got, but it would take too much time, and time is what he is running out of. Six quickly analyzed the battlefield and found what he was looking for, a fuel rod cannon from a dead grunt.

The Spartan shouldered the weapon but did not fire. The hunter's heavy armor and shield would protect it from the front, Six needed to hit it in the rear in order to kill it quickly before more Covenant arrived.

The hunter's cannon began charging, preparing to fire. Suddenly, time seemed to slow down for Six as his body began pumping more adrenaline into his blood. Now time was nothing more than a crawl.

Spartan time.

Six sprinted toward the walking tank like a savage barbarian. The hunter fired it's fuel rod cannon, but Six, in his heightened state of awareness, jumped over the projectile and proceeded to close the distance between him and the hunter.

The hyper lethal vector rolled between the legs of the giant combatant and continued a few steps more before spinning around and emptying all five rounds from the heavy weapon's clip into the back of the hunter. The shots tore into the back of the hunter and vapourized the lekgolo worms, killing the hunter.

The lone wolf, unperturbed, dropped the weapon and spun around to the last phantom in working order. The massive explosion from Six's 'plan' vapourized one of the dropships and crippled the engines of another, this one will have to do.

The super soldier boarded the ship via the troop bay before entering the cockpit revealing to him dozens of buttons and levers. Thankfully, his training prepared him for such a scenario. Spartan Kurt made sure that the Spartan IIIs were trained to operate Covenant, weapons, equipment, vehicles, and even ships.

His training kicked in, and Six began typing in commands to the dropship, in order to activate its weapon systems and anti gravity generators. The engines of the ship roared to life and its weapons checked green.

The phantom gained altitude… before being pelted by plasma fire.

The dropship had heavy armor however and these light plasma weapons won't be able to bring it down. Six wasn't going to go easy on them however.

The phantom's main gun lit up the enemy's position like a christmas tree. The red explosive rounds pulverizing jackals and grunts, as well as tearing through the shields and armor of the elites like butter.

Six was satisfied when the stragglers began to retreat and masterfully manipulated the dropship up the Reach's exosphere. It only took him a few minutes to reach said destination before laying his eyes on a Covenant SDV heavy corvette.

The lone wolf allowed a small private smile onto his features as Six redirected his dropship to his new getaway vehicle.

Reach had fallen, but Six was far from it, and the Covenant on that ship were about to find out just how determined the Spartan truly was.

End Flashback

That's how it went. Six boarded the Corvette, and after a long firefight through the ship, cut off the life support systems and killed the entire crew except for himself thanks to MJOLNIR's EVA capabilities. None of the occupants expected the Spartan's intentions so no one prepared for the possibility of a lack of life support.

Six reprogrammed the ship to jump to Earth and almost got atomized by a super MAC cannon. Thankfully the Spartan revealed his human identity and stayed aboard the Cairo station for several weeks before meeting the Chief.

From there, the two Spartans began their epic quest from Earth to the Halos and the Ark. The help of the Sangheili Arbiter Thel Vadam was invaluable as well. Mike remembered the Arbiter's first words when the Chief had a gun to his head.

'Were it so easy'.

The saying, of course, referred to the Arbiter's inability to die easily at the Chief's hand. The elite said the same quote when Chief was missing in action, assuring Lord Hood, that the Chief doesn't die easily.

He was very much right about that.

Noble Six thought about why he didn't die back on Reach or all the other moments that he should have died for that matter. Six simply chalked it up to the Arbiter's saying that now clung to his memory like a swarm of flies on rotten meat.

A large human hand placed itself on Six's shoulder, startling the man from his thoughts.

"You okay Six?" came Jun's slavic accent, tainted with worry that only a Spartan would notice.

Six looked up at Noble's sniper. "I'm alright Jun just thinking."

The marksman sat next to Six on the spacious bench. "About what?" He asked, scrutinizing Six for any form of emotion, none came.

"Why am I still alive Jun?, I should of died on Reach, either with the rest of the team, or died making sure they lived." Six replied, his face remained a stone as he looked down to the floor.

Jun sighed; he had a feeling it would come to this. "Six, you couldn't do anything to ensure everyone survived, that is war. You can't expect everyone to always survive the fight." Jun looked at Six worryingly; his condition is worsening. Jun understood that Noble Team was Six's first real team after all the years spent working by himself.

He just needs to learn to live and let go.

Six looked at Jun, but Jun stopped him, knowing what he was going to say." Six, you need something to take your mind off of this and keep focused on the mission, only 18 hours left you know?"

The lone wolf's gaze hardened. "You're right, the mission matters. I'm going to hit the weights." and with that, the Spartan made his way off the the closest bench press.

All the other stations were occupied since the Infinity was in slipspace, it gave the crew some time to perform leisure activities.

Six walked over to a bench occupied by two marines. The larger of the two stood at 6'4 and was incredibly muscular. Still, the man looked pathetic compared to a Spartan III. the smaller marine was spotting the man as he successfully lifted 315lb, impressive for a normal human.

The lone wolf waited patiently for the man to finish before asking, "Are you gentlemen finished?"

The two combat veterans stared up at the Spartan's impenetrable gaze, eyes widened, before the larger of the two responded. "Yeah, sure we just finished."

The two men quickly got out of the massive human's way and walked off to another part of the large gym.

Mike began adding many plates to the bar until he calculated it to be at 800lb. He then sat down on the bench only to see the many pairs of eyes staring at him in disbelief. The sight of seeing so many plates threatening to snap the bar seemed to attract more attention than Six first assumed.

The Spartan inwardly sighed, before laying on the bench and levelling his eyes with the bar. He then placed his hands a little more than shoulder width apart. Noble Six began his warm up as he effortlessly lifted the absurdly heavy weight for 20 repetitions.

Like every Spartan, Six went through some serious augmentations in order to improve his physical capabilities. At first, each spartan could lift 3 times their body weight, which was significantly more than normal thanks to their dense bones and muscles. Chief Petty Officer Mendez and Spartan Kurt specifically stated that they would only get stronger and faster as they became used to their bodies and exposed themselves to physical labour.

They weren't kidding when they said that the Spartans would get stronger and faster.

Six set the weight back down and sat up only to see everyone in the gym giving Six their undivided attention, as if he was some kind of angel or demi god. The faces of some of the young recruits as pale as ghosts.

'Damn it, why can't I workout in peace?' thought Six grimly as he slowly stood back up to add more weight.

Now weighing in at 1000lb, the bar looked like a parabola on a graph, but this parabola was susceptible to snapping in half like a twig. Nevertheless, Six sat down on the bench and once again lifting the weight 15 times, this time straining a little more. Six sat up once again to see still a horde of awed expressions staring at Six like unmoving statues. The Spartan was worried for the health of these men and women if he had to be honest.

'This is going to be a long workout session.' thought the superhuman soldier as he piled more weight onto the bar, much to the utter shock of the observers.

Sigma was currently observing the camera feed of the Infinity, carefully skimming through the vast security feed until he stopped at one of the Infinity's gyms.

What Sigma found was rather amusing, amusing enough to put a smirk on a brick wall.

Noble Six was performing his workout regimen only to realize half the gym might as well have been in a coma from the shock and awe. The irritation on Six's face was priceless and the AI laughed at the Spartan's plight.

'Poor Six can't seem to stop grabbing all the attention.' thought the Artificial Intelligence with one final chuckle.

Spartan's tend to attract a lot of attention even without their MJOLNIR armor. Their massive muscular bodies and superhuman traits aweing even the AI.

Sigma began to think back to that conversation between the ONI captain Daniels and Lasky about the strange Forerunner artifact.

'Maybe I should take matters into my own hands.' thought the AI as he brought up the interface for the ONI prowler… it was scheduled to leave once the Infinity showed up so Sigma deemed it necessary to 'acquire' some files regarding said Forerunner artifact.

Sigma was not tied directly to ONI. He was developed with the purpose of providing support to a Spartan or Spartans. This included data gathering, combat assessment, hacking, and etc. Although he was no Cortana, Sigma was right beneath her capabilities. The UNSC did not want ONI to have control over such a capable AI so drastic measures were ensured to prevent that.

Sigma is not tied to ONI in anyway shape or form. So he took it upon himself to hack into the databases of the prowler. Sigma was leagues ahead of the dumb AI stationed aboard the prowler, so being discovered was not something to worry about.

Going over the files, Sigma realized that the main files appeared to be deleted.

'Smart, they must have deleted the important files upon collecting the data in order to maintain secrecy'. Thought the AI dryly as he continued his search.

The only real piece of data he found was that the device emitted low intensity hawking radiation. By low intensity, the file specifically meant so low that after a few dozen scans, they finally realized the hawking radiation residue.

'Strange.'

UNSC Shaw Fujikawa translight engines emitted hawking radiation as well. Could the artifact be some kind of Forerunner slipspace drive? It must be a very primitive version. Sigma didn't remember any form of Forerunner technology emitting hawking radiation.

But even if the device was primitive by Forerunner standards, the artifact could send humanity leagues ahead in slipspace travel. Now Sigma partially understood the need for secrecy. But to put Infinity in the dark like they did was just plain stupid.

Sigma decided to keep this to himself, Lasky does not need to know that the AI just hacked into an ONI ship's database to secure the utmost classified information.

Sigma decided to keep himself busy by challenging Roland to a few games of chess. Soon Infinity would reach Sanhelios, and Noble Team would once again stare down an army.

Noble Six and Jun ate in silence, nothing but the mission was on their minds, it was now 90 minutes until they arrived at their destination.

The time passed quickly for the lone wolf, several hours at the gym and a 5 hour nap can work wonders. The Spartan felt as if he could take on the entire Covenant fleet. The two Spartans quickly finished their breakfast and made their way to the S-deck where they would be outfitted with their Mk6 MJOLNIR armor.

The two super soldiers made it to their respected positions as the technicians with the help of autonomous robotic arms began to outfit the Spartans with their armor. The super soldiers were first layered with many of the inner components and then encased in the titanium weave that was flexible enough to allow fluid movement. The machines began attaching the heavy ship grade titanium-A battleplate to the Spartans - all 1000lbs of it, that plus Six's weight would mean that he weighs 1450lbs in armor. A technician handed Six his helmet who took it from the man's hands, nodded in appreciation, and placed the helmet on his head.

The heads up display lit up, showing his motion detector, shields, etc. He turned to his left to see Jun donning the same armor that he wore on Reach, the only difference is that it was Mark 6 armor instead of Mark 5.

Noble Six towered in his suit at 7'2, one inch taller than Jun. Six's armor was very basic with a few minor upgrades. His suit was the standard Mark 6 issued to all Spartan IIs. The difference being that the heavy titanium armor was coloured jet black instead of the usual green. A combat knife was attached horizontally across his chest and a tacpad was attached to his right arm.

"Good to be home isn't it Six?" said Jun referring to the comfort of MJOLNIR armor.

All Spartan's adore their armor like a second skin, after fighting with it for decades, all the original Spartans prefer to wear the armor instead of being without it and feeling 'naked'.

Six was no different. "I felt vulnerable without my armor, But it feels good to be back, now let's report to the captain." Jun nodded and turned around as Six followed him out of the S-deck and towards the bridge. Many of the UNSC personnel making way for the massive armoured figures which moved almost silently considering they were wearing half a ton of armor. MJOLNIR with its weight, was also extremely durable, in fact it was almost impervious to even high caliber armor piercing rounds. Recent tests showed that the titanium plates could withstand a direct hit from several 30mm armor piercing rounds before failing. Those same tests proved that the weaker titanium weave could withstand direct hits from several .50 rounds. MJOLNIR would give the opposition a hard time trying to cut down any Spartan II or III.

That is if they got through the energy shield.

The energy shield was reverse engineered from captured Covenant technology. Unlike the Mark 5, Mark 6 shield tech was much more advanced. UNSC shield concepts from the past were made a reality thanks to this technology. With unparalleled knowledge of projectile firearms, the UNSC made the shields of a Spartan even more resistant to bullets than usual. But the shield was slightly weaker than that of an ultra's when it came to dealing with plasma weapons or melee strikes.

All of this plus the fact that MJOLNIR made the user 5 times stronger and significantly faster, and decreased the Spartan's already absurd reaction time by a factor of 5. Six remembered being able to dodge a handful of bullets during tests, to his utter surprise.

These factors made the Spartans nigh invincible on the battlefield.

Six and Jun finally arrived at the bridge, and stepped in to find Lasky chatting away with Roland.

The super soldiers waited for the captain to finish his conversation with Infinity's AI before drawing closer to the captain and saluting him.

"Sir Noble Team reporting for duty." said the Spartans who held the salute firmly.

"At ease Noble." replied Lasky, his tiredness was not lost on Six as he and Jun stood at parade rest. The captain simply stared at the Spartans with the type of expression one would get upon being affected by poison ivy and trying not to scratch the affected area; pure irritation.

Lasky got to the point. "So, the two of you are already aware of the basics of this operation. But thanks to the help of our ONI friends, we were able to acquire accurate Covenant troop strength." Lasky sighed. "They have a battalion sized force supported by heavy armor guarding the command and control center."

That was anywhere between 800-1000 troops, too much for two Spartans to take head on, especially since they had the advantage of being on the defensive.

"Air support sir?" asked Jun not missing out on a single detail.

"No, thankfully all Covenant air support is hell bent on keeping the frontlines under control." Lasky replied, his calmness and composure returning in an instant.

Lasky continued. "You will be dropped off 15 klicks South of your objective. From there you will proceed to the objective area. Once target is destroyed give us the all clear and attempt to stall the enemy from retrieving the Forerunner artifact. Fleet will standby for assistance and exfil."

"Understood sir," replied both Spartans in unison which appeared to startle Lasky.

Lasky continued after taking a sip of coffee."Good, Six, I'm handing over Sigma back to you, he will provide situational awareness as well as hacking and guidance, if there is nothing else to say, then you are dismissed."

"Understood sir, Noble Team will get it done." said Six with pure determination in his voice. He always enjoyed a challenging mission, and this mission will definitely be a challenge for the Spartan.

Six accepted Sigma's AI chip from a bridge officer. The two super soldiers saluted before heading to one of the Infinity's many hangar bays to board their stealth transport.

Just another day on a suicide mission.

Sigma's voice broke the silence. "So how are my two favourite Spartan's doing?" said the AI, his smile evident from the tone of his voice.

"You sound happier than usual." replied Six as the hulking super soldier stepped to the side to allow a female scientist to pass through.

"I have found some wonderful information, thanks to my fantastic knowledge, about a certain artifact that a certain pair off Spartans have been tasked with retrieving as a secondary objective." said the AI.

Six grumbled inwardly; he hated when Sigma acted like this. "Sigma, why did you hack into the ONI prowler, I thought that is off limits."

Sigma chuckled, " Of course not, I used my charming personality to seduce the AI into surrendering its knowledge, which obviously pales in comparison to my own." the damnable AI was now smirking.

Now Sigma has activated his smartass mode, it didn't help that Six and Jun were about to face an entire Covenant battalion.

"Sigma, that is against the UNSC Security Act, you do not have the authorization to view that information." Six said sternly, frustrated with the AI's lack of restraint.

Sigma sighed. "Relax Six, it never hurts to have a bit of extra information. Thought you'd want to know what we could expect from this Forerunner artifact." Six only grunted in response, effectively stating 'It doesn't matter when you were a hair's width away from being decommissioned.'

Sometimes Sigma wondered who was really the machine.

The two Spartans finally arrived in one of the Infinity's many hangar bays where they approached the modified stealth pelican. Unlike the standard dropship, this iteration of the pelican replaced armor for special plating that can deflect radar waves and other forms of tracking equipment. It also came with its own active camouflage generator which makes it virtually invisible.

The two pilots took their positions in the cockpit of the stealth aircraft. While Noble Team boarded the troop bay. Inside was a small holotable in the center as well as several weapons, grenades, and extra ammunition that was secured to racks on both sides of the troop bay.

"Might as well prepare ourselves while we have the time." Said Jun as he picked up the famed SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle. This weapon could fire a tungsten carbide 14.5x114mm round at 3500m/s. The reason it could reach such an absurd velocity is because of the advanced propellant in the shell casing that allowed such velocities to be attainable. That coupled with its weight of 309 grams ensured that anything it hits won't be moving anymore.

Noble Three also picked up an MA5D assault rifle and a M6H magnum pistol for close encounters.

Noble Six looked over the weapons, his tactical mind deciding on what type of weapons to bring with him based on enemy troop composition and combat environment.

His analysis suggested that the long to medium range engagement ranges called for the use of the M395 DMR, the presence of vehicles required a heavy weapon so Six attached a M41 SPNKR rocket launcher. Finally the close quarters engagements inside the enemy command and control center meant Six needed a suitable weapon for said CQC situations. The lone wolf settled for a pair of M20 SMGs. The Spartan gathered as much ammunition as he could carry, as well as 4 frag grenades.

The two spartans, now loaded for bear, took their positions around the holotable as the door to the troop bay closed and the pelican ascended up and out of the hangar bay.

Although Lasky briefed them on the mission already, the Spartans were anticipating the introduction of new mission specific information and were ready to receive it.

Suddenly, the holotable lit up and Lasky's face appeared, his calm expression changing to one of irritation as soon as the super soldiers saluted the captain.

"Sir, mission update?" asked Jun as both Spartans stood at parade rest.

Captain Lasky's irritated expression remained the same as he replied. "Yes Noble Team. Scans indicate that the Covenant Fleet oriented to face the planet. We believe they might be catching on to us. So now time is a factor. We need to take out Covenant presence in that region before that fleet can arrive and drop off more troops."

"Yes sir, anything else?" asked Six, expecting his current mission to be somehow more difficult.

"Negative, you are weapons free as soon as you are boots on the ground. You can complete the mission objective as you see fit, good luck Noble Team." Said Lasky before he vanished into thin air and the holotable reset to show the mission area.

"What is our course of action Six?" asked Jun after looking at the holotable for a second. Jun prefers Six to be in command after the war since he believed that Six was more qualified for the position. Noble Six politely refused only to give up after Jun's persistence became too great.

Six scrutinized the map, looking for any possible weak points or entries. "There is a nearby mountain range to the South of the primary objective area. It appears to be lightly guarded. We could make our way through the base with relative ease if we stick to that route."

Sigma spoke up. "I agree with this plan, perhaps with a bit of my technical expertise, I could hack into the enemy network and fool them into diverting more troops to the North side of the base, making entry even more convenient."

Jun provided his opinion. "I agree, but once we overload the reactor, the enemy will know that they've been infiltrated, the smart ones will evacuate the area sure, but we all know that not many in the Covenant are very smart so that complicates things."

Six nodded, understanding Jun's concerns. "The most likely enemy response routes will be here and here." Six pointed to two routes through the base which connect to one single path towards the front of the citadel. "Maybe we could somehow slow them down."

"Some kind of trap yes, but what could we use for such a task?" asked the AI wondering what the Spartan's unorthodox tactical brain was thinking about.

Jun turned his head to the side and spotted a large stack of C8 demolition charges. "Looks like Lasky made sure that we came prepared, we could use these explosives to really bring the pain." Jun said, the smirk obvious in his voice at the thought of the Covenant's obliteration.

"That's ridiculous Jun, these explosives can pierce through 5 meters of standard titanium, isn't that a little overkill?" said Sigma, the disbelief obvious in his voice.

Six chuckled; a rare display of emotion from him, especially during a mission. "Sigma, there's no kill like overkill." Jun chuckled and gave Six a thumbs up.

Sigma sighed in resignation, realizing he was powerless at preventing the Spartan's in ensuring the Covenant's imminent annihilation into elementary particles.

"What do you propose we do after we detonate the charges; we only have a limited time before the reactor vapourizes everything in the area." asked Jun, the question obvious in his voice as he looked over his sniper rifle for perhaps the tenth time.

"We use our active camouflage to retreat to the enemy camp holding the artifact and we hold off the Covenant and await UNSC back up." said Six, as if stating a well known fact.

The original Spartans were all given active camouflage modules after the war to add to their extreme combat skills. The device is far too expensive to mass produce and equip each Spartan IV with. But the Spartan IIs and IIIs made sure to take complete advantage to this new boost in their combat capabilities.

Jun didn't seem convinced. "The Covenant would just follow us from the citadel to the camp once we make a run for it."

"Our active camouflage should allow us to make it to the camp without being compromised, most of the troops would still try to hunt us down within the main base and make sure we don't escape not realizing we already have. The reactor explodes vapourizing all if not most of the battalion."

"Now that you put it that way, I think this plan will work." said Jun, chambering a new round into his sniper rifle in agreement.

"Glad you agree, Sigma, I'd recommend that you make preparations to hack into the enemy's command network." ordered Six with practiced authority.

"Of course Six, I'll get right on it." said the AI as he began to analyse the Covenant's firewalls.

It was quite basic but still very effective considering their weakened status. The system worked quite simply. In order for a signal or packet of data to be accepted in anyway, it would have to have the traditional Covenant algorithm scheme; which is still quite advanced by UNSC standards.

Failure to convince the system will result in the command and control system using its several nodes to trace and triangulate the signal to its origin; this means that camo or not the Covenant will know where they are and will send troops in the thousands against only two Spartans.

That was unacceptable.

They would be overwhelmed from the sheer number of hostiles before they even made it to the objective.

Sigma needed to wait for the proper time to slip in a packet of data through the firewalls along with a Covenant communication signal. The data would compile inside their systems and be ready for Sigma's command to send the fake 'under attack' message and divert some Covenant troops to move to the North; opposite of Noble's entry point.

Not only that, but the data packet will open up the entire Covenant battle net, showing all their positions along with troop composition and numbers. Sigma would have to relay that to the Infinity so they could pass it on to the friendly Swords of Sanghelios forces led by the Arbiter. Such information would be instrumental in retaking that territory.

Sigma waited, until the firewalls opened up to allow entry for a Covenant signal. In the span of a few microseconds, Sigma attached the data packet to the signal and was satisfied when he got the greenlight confirmation sent from the data packet that it is in position and is undetected.

"All done Six, I am now standing by the execute the diversion. Also, you should know that I have acquired the enemy's battle net." informed the AI, his avatar projecting a smirk on his face as he spoke.

The two Spartans' helmets snapped onto the AI's hologram. "You acquired the Covenant's troop positions? Excellent job Sigma." Six congratulated, although his voice held almost no emotion, Sigma knew that the Spartan meant it.

"Can you send it to the Infinity without the Covenant triangulating its position." asked Jun as he scrutinized the AI's hologram.

"Yes, but not until I activate the hidden data packet and execute the diversion. I can use the Covenant command and control center to send the information to the Infinity disguised as a Covenant signal. They will at first think that the Covenant is hailing him only to receive the Covenant's battle net information." replied the AI with a smug expression.

"Okay, everything is ready, mission is a go, ETA 30 seconds to touch." said Six as he unslung his rifle and chambered a round.

Sigma knew that this mission was as good as completed as the two massive super soldiers stepped out of the pelican and into the rising sun that marked the death of every non human that got in the way of Noble Team.

Another Kig Yar sniper tried to alert its corpse comrades as a jet black Spartan appeared from thin air like a vengeful spirit and pierced its brain with a combat knife, ending its life in an instant. Six and Jun have been at this for almost half an hour.

They had to 'slow down' their pace due to enemy patrols constantly paced around the mountain range. This is the second patrol they slaughtered however, as they were able to easily evade the others without bloodshed. This was easy going for the Spartans, since they knew very well the potential of how bad even just getting to the observation point marked by their trusty AI would be.

Six hid the body of the jackal underneath a small waterfall, he turned around to see Jun do the same carrying a pair of grunts and throwing them into the same hiding spot. Jun looked at Six who only gave a crisp nod and continue forward with Jun in tow.

Six enjoyed this very much; it reminded him of past missions he performed alone working for ONI as a black ops hitman. The fact that he was doing this similar type of mission with Jun only made him smile slightly as his head continued to turn on a swivel, looking for any threats, or the smallest out of place detail.

The two half ton super soldiers moved almost completely silently, which was an amazing feat considering their weight. They were like reapers that stalked through the woods, their golden visors spelling doom on their other worldly opponents as each step promised five deaths in return.

"Hold." said Six as the lone wolf and sniper crouched behind a rock large enough for both Spartans to hide behind. The chatter of two elites could be heard in the distance.

The Spartans didn't wait long as a pair of elite minors followed by ten grunts trudged along a path that would eventually pass adjacent to their hiding spot.

Six's mind whirred as he thought of every possible outcome of this situation and what to expect and not expect. Six had a gut feeling that if they were spotted this close to the base, then he would have to worry about more than just the patrol.

'Good soldiers follow orders, better soldiers trust their gut.'

Six turned off his external speakers. "Sigma track the patrol position and update me once they are out of sight."

"Affirmative." said Sigma, before going quiet again.

Six waited alongside Jun as their hearing picked up the light thumping noise of the heavy elites followed by the rambling the grunts pass by their hiding spot. The lone wolf's muscles tensed and coiled like a spring, ready to be activated at a moment's notice should they be spotted.

"Enemy patrol is out of visual range, you are cleared to proceed." Said the AI in a monotone voice, indicating Sigma's state of focus; constantly on the lookout for more enemy troops.

Noble Six took point again and kept one eye on his motion tracker at all times, expecting the unexpected.

"Observation position is 500 meters 12 O'clock." Notified Jun as he pointed his rifle to the right making sure nothing out of the ordinary was there as the two super soldiers continued to swiftly traverse the rocky desert like terrain towards their objective.

Spartans were trained to always be on guard. Their training so rigorous that even when eating at a ship's mess hall with friendly troops, their backs would stay impossibly straight with their hands on their knees as their eyes darted back and forth mapping every inch of the room for attack points and escape routes.

Not a single solitary second was wasted as Noble Team cautiously made their way to the objective. They spent their time wisely mapping out the entire area should more troops be committed to bringing down the Spartans.

Such details included likely sniper positions, drop points, ambush positions, and best escape routes for the Spartans should the mission go South.

"Hold position, we've reached the observation point." ordered Six quietly as both armored behemoths stopped and quickly took in their surroundings while simultaneously assuming the prone position to begin pre-mission execution recon.

Most of the defending forces were very relaxed, which was to be expected since they were so far behind the frontlines. A few squads were patrolling throughout the dirt roads which separated the various buildings made using traditional Covenant architecture. To the West as a large assortment of vehicles, some operational, and others undergoing repairs.

'Good, some of their heavy armor is inoperable.' Thought Six as he continued observing the enemy. Any advantage would be needed for Noble Team in this situation.

To the East was a narrow and somewhat shallow canyon that led to a smaller enemy camp that contained the Forerunner device which was their secondary objective. The canyon would be invaluable in helping to shield the Spartans from when the citadel's reactor erupts.

The citadel was easy to see. The base of the structure sloped upward until it reached the tower at the top. This tower was suspended in the air above the main structure by some form of anti gravity generation. In total, the structure probably stood at a height of 300 meters, and was large enough the fit several of the Covenant's scarab heavy assault platforms.

"Sigma, I want you to begin that little diversion of yours." said the stoic Spartan as he waited for the promised results.

"Understood Six, let's give them something to worry about shall we?" smirked the AI as he went silent, presumably preparing his diversion.

Jun spoke up. "This is risky Six, we are severely outnumbered, are you sure we checked everything?"

Six replied. "Yes Jun I went over all of the variables, if we play our cards right then we won't have anything to worry about."

Six observed and smiled slightly as an alarm sounded and an elite's voice blared over several speakers placed throughout the base in its language. The result was almost instant and most of the Covenant troops grouped to the North and assumed defensive positions, expecting enemy infiltrators to attack through the open desert that left their resupply points exposed.

The hyper lethal knew that now was the time to go; Noble Team needed to take advantage of the distraction and overload the reactor before the distracted Covenant swarmed them.

The two Spartans didn't say a word to each other, they already knew what to do. Like a pair of deathly wraiths, the Spartans cloaked and silently made their way towards their victims.

It didn't take long for the super soldiers to arrive at the very edge of their base, their cloaking devices having now turned off to begin recharging.

Six hid behind a wraith and watched a trio of grunts waddle by him, their lack of discipline and awareness will prove to be their downfall. The lone wolf ran across the dirt road and made it to the other side as Jun covered him.

Their plan was to preserve their active camo and get to the citadel as close as they possibly could before reactivated their cloaking devices and sneaking into the building.

"Six there's a squad of elites moving in on your 1 O'clock." warned Sigma as Six and Jun silently dove behind and small Covenant tent. Not a moment too soon 6 elite minors trudged along the dirt path speaking in their ridiculous language. 2 of them stopped and made their way to Noble's location after waving to the other group which continued their course away from the Spartans.

"We'll have to drop them." said Jun, reading out Six's thoughts aloud.

The hyper lethal nodded, unsheathed his combat knife, and tensed up, ready to uncoil and attack.

Jun did the same and waited for their prey to stalk closer…. They were now living a doomed existence.

Six lunged towards the left most elite and Jun did the same to the other one. The half ton titanium soldiers nothing more than a blur to the inexperienced warriors as they simultaneously plunged their knives into the heads of the aliens. The two young warriors both fell to the ground soundlessly, purple blood oozed through the gruesome punctures in their skulls as their executors hid their bodies inside the tent.

"It won't be long until they discover the dead, we should move." said Jun to which Six only nodded in response before once again taking point and moving through the shadows made by the Covenant buildings.

"Noble Team, you are now 100 meters away from the main objective, no enemy patrols within a 150 meter radius so you should be clear for now." said Sigma, breaking the silence and confirming to the Spartans that they should pick up their pace.

"Understood, thanks Sigma." replied the hyper lethal as he nodded to Jun and the two continued their course towards the enemy's annihilation.

Noble Team cloaked, now almost invisible to the enemy, and continued at a faster pace towards, their main structure. They travelled in between the base's many tents and other structure until they stopped.

The entrance to the citadel opened up like a great big maw, as if anything that enters will be swallowed whole and lost forever to its grasp.

"Jun now would be a good time to set up the traps." ordered Six as he began placing the small but powerful explosives on the dirt road to the right of the entrance. The Spartans dug small holes and placed a charge into said hole, covering it up of course.

They regrouped at the front of the entrance after expending all of their explosive charges.

The two Spartans exchanged glances. "It's now or never Six." the two Spartans continued into the maw, preparing to be swallowed whole as long as the great big monster died.

"I'm picking up lots of Covenant chatter inside the structure be careful, I've marked the quickest route to the reactor, you can't miss it." Informed SIx's AI as Noble Team casually strode through the foreign structure.

Six knew that they can't continue sneaking like this; there were far too many hostiles in such a close quarters area for that to be possible, and they needed to save their active camouflage in order to get to the secondary objective without being gunned down.

Jun had the same thoughts as Six and tensed up as a large squad composed of two dozen grunts started heading their way through the hallway.

"Noble Team, I suggest you maneuver around that squad right now." warned Sigma. If Six didn't know any better, he'd thought that even the AI has tensed up.

"Negative, we've already been compromised, time is of the essence, we are going loud." said the lone wolf, as if the entire galaxy already knew his answer to the AI, his voice somehow deep enough to be mistaken for that of an elite's.

"Affirmative, on your mark." Jun readied himself and Six did the same.

Time slowed down and now the grunts' slow waddle was slow enough for them to look like they were walking neck deep in water. A gauntleted hand suddenly found itself clutching a grenade as the victims drew closer, unaware that their doom was just around the corner.

"Mark."

A grenade soared through the air in slow motion towards the center of the squad as the two titanium soldiers shouldered their rifles and opened fire.

The storm of 7.62 mm rounds shredded through light armor and flesh, claiming the lives of a dozen grunts before the grenade settled on the ground and exploded, shredding the other half of the squad.

That was only 5 seconds worth of slaughter.

"We need to move fast before they pile on us." said Jun as the two Spartans moved through the door only to run into a massive room filled with dozens of Covenant.

"10-4." confirmed Six as the two super soldiers took cover behind a large purple barricade which took the brunt of the absurd plasma fire. Six observed the room; it was very large, in the middle was nothing but open space, across from Noble Team was a series of platforms guarded by plasma turrets and along the sides were several different types of supplies including some damaged vehicles.

They need a plan.

"Sigma suggestions?" questioned the hyper lethal as he shouldered his rifle and began picking of the Covenant several grunts fell as well as a minor elite thanks to his precise fire.

"Flank right, their forces are weak there, most of their light troops appear to be attempting to rush your left side, I recommend wiping out they rear guard and hitting their cannon fodder from two sides." instructed the AI as Six instantly complied. A burst of speed made him a blur to the eyes of the Covenant as Jun picked off targets one by one with his sniper rifle.

The armoured behemoth rounded the corner of a wall and found himself face to face with a squad of stealth elites attempting to flank the Spartans.

Six didn't even think as his body worked in autopilot thanks to his childhood of the most intense military training humanity had to offer.

Six replaced his DMR with his dual submachine guns and let loose a terrifying storm of armor piercing bullets upon the would be assassins. The bullets knocked out their shields and tore through the armor and flesh of two of the elites.

A split second later the hyper lethal dove into cover to avoid the plasma storm emitted from the two remaining combatants. He reloaded his smgs and threw himself out of cover, rolled, crouched, and opened up again, this time, they were ready. The first elite charged at the Spartan with his energy sword drawn while the second one utilized its carbine to give Six two things to worry about.

The Spartan rolled again to the side. The elite roared as his comrade shot him in the back thanks to the Spartan's trick. The lone wolf lunged at the distracted elite, who attempted to back hand Six with the sword, only to receive a broken wrist and a missing energy sword.

Six cut the elite's stomach with the tip of the plasma sword and smashed his heel into its stomach, denting armour and crushing its chest. The corpse slid across the purple metallic floor back towards the last elite who stared at the corpse in shock.

Rookie mistake.

The super soldier moved with a speed that belied his size and in an instant, the elite found itself halved by the Spartan.

Without even acknowledging his victory, Six sprinted with a speed that spelled death as he rammed his half ton weight into a pair a terrified jackals, crushing their fragile bones like cardboard as he continued his rampage.

Six spotted a large platform about 35 feet above the floor and a now occupied wraith that was spinning its devastating plasma mortar towards Six.

The hyper lethal accepted the challenge with a small smile as his massive armored figure once again became a blur. Six readied his rocket launcher as he used the wraith like a ramp to get up to the platform. His left foot found purchase on the hatch of the vehicle, followed by his right foot which landed on the plasma mortar.

The Spartan sailed through the air like a javelin. He looked back at the wraith and fired a single rocket. It pierced through the light armored plasma mortar and the Covenant tank erupted in a geyser of purple and blue flames. Plums of smoke rose up into the ceiling as Six switched to his smgs.

The Spartan landed directly on the head of an elite ultra trying to rally the defenses. The soldier's half ton weight crushing its skull and killing it instantly. The rest of the Covenant looked at the demon with fear as a few of them took a step back.

Two of the elites charged at the menacing Spartan before dropping to the floor...

Another elite followed along with a Kig Yar marksman on another platform to Six's right side. It was Jun the unmistakable sound of his sniper rifle echoing in the back confirmed the deaths of the Covenant as more rounds found their marks in the skulls of the aliens.

The lone wolf ignored the spectacle of the Covenant being dropped one by one like dominos and lunged forward to no enemy in particular.

But that was the unpredictable Spartan's intention.

His smgs barked on either side of him as the remaining jackals and grunts collapsed to the ground like sacks of potatoes.

Six cleared the platform easily and turned his attention to a tripod mounted plasma turret as well as the three dozen or so grunts and jackals approaching Jun's position.

The soldier silently placed his gauntlets on the handles and trigger, aimed, and fired.

The effects were devastating.

The plasma rounds were ejected from the weapon at a terrifying fire rate. They melted through armor and flesh like and acid. Six spotted his brother emerge from cover with his assault rifle, and let loose a magazine of armor piercing bullets. It only took 15 or so seconds of prolonged fire from both directions to completely obliterate the attackers.

"Thanks for the assist Six, I will attack the enemy from the left, you continue along the right and we'll hit their position from both sides." said Jun, his voice one of appreciation.

"Affirmative, oscar mike." replied Six in a firm voice that stated 'they're already dead'.

The hyper lethal continued along the catwalk that connected the upper platforms. Six came across the final group of enemies below him, guarding a rather large door.

"Sigma, what are they defending?" asked Six, half of him knowing the answer.

"That would be the door to the reactor, I'd hurry up if I were you; Covenant forces are beginning to get rather suspicious and some of them appear to be positioning themselves outside the citadel. I don't know about you but I heard that bad things happen to Spartans when they are trapped inside a building outnumbered a few hundred to one." answered Sigma, his voice tinged with too much smartassery for Six's liking.

"Understood Sigma, Jun on my mark we perform a synchronized attack on the defending squad." Said Six, his acknowledgment light blinked green meaning Jun was ready.

These hostiles were tougher; 6 minors and a pair of ultras lead by a zealot were in various positions around the door. They forgot to watch the platforms however.

That would be their downfall.

Six readied his rocket launcher, its second tube still had a rocket in it, and Six still had two extra rockets to use. He aimed at the two ultras standing side by side, and fired.

The rocket impacted between the two white warriors and exploded. Shrapnel pierced their bodies, said bodies were ripped apart from the explosion, with a leg and two arms being severed in total. Blood painted the walls around them as Six jumped and landed knife first onto the skull of a minor elite.

Jun fired off two bullets from his sniper rifle at the zealot. Both tungsten carbide rounds found their mark as the once great warrior became a lifeless addition to Noble Team's kill count. The remaining elites opened fire at Six, whose shields failed with the sheer combined firepower at close range.

The hyper lethal dove to cover as another sniper discharge could be heard, a corpse was added to the grave.

Six waited for his shields to recharge and vaulted over the cover just in time to see another elite's head explode from Jun's hand cannon. The jet black Spartan dove underneath an elite's fist and then came back up with an uppercut. The elites head snapped up and then down only to get a faceful of lead from a pair of smgs from a certain super soldier. Six spun around and caught the last elite's fist. The armoured human spun around, placed the elite's arm over his shoulder, and performed a judo throw on the elite, effortlessly slamming the several hundred pound alien on the ground. The wind was knocked from the alien as it looked up and saw a half ton armoured boot collide with its face.

Without saying a word, Noble Team moved into the door and continued through a hallway until they found another door, this one appeared to be more resistant than the last door.

"Reactor is just through this door, I'm not detecting any signs of life, give me a second and I'll have it open." informed Sigma in a neutral voice as he went quiet once again.

The two Spartans watched the route from which they arrived for any signs of the enemy.

Nothing came.

The door suddenly opened and revealed a white light almost too bright to look at; the reactor. Their visors polarized to compensate for the incredibly bright light. Six came across a console with a slot for Sigma's AI chip. Wordlessly, he removed Sigma from the back of his helmet and placed him in the Covenant's system.

"Standby, this reactor is as good as elementary particles when I'm done with it." smirked the AI as the two Spartans kept their weapons trained on the door.

Without warning, an alarm went off, it sounded similar to the alarm a scarab emitted prior to its destruction.

"Done, let's get out of here, we only have 8 minutes." warned the AI as Six placed his chip in his helmet.

The two Spartans entered a full sprint and frantically ran past the dozens of dead Covenant.

'Where is the enemy reinforcements?' thought Six as they continued to the main entrance without meeting any resistance.

"Hold." ordered Six before they made it to the entrance.

"What's wrong?" asked Sigma as Six began a weapons check; his gut told him something was wrong, and he wasn't going to lose trust in it after it has saved his life so many times.

"Run a scan on the outer perimeter of the citadel." Six knew what the AI was going to say.

"Commencing scan… oh… that's not good. Half the battalion is waiting for you while the other half is still maintaining defensives posture on the outer perimeter of the base." Sigma said, his voice tinged with worry.

"Our only chance is to perform a fighting retreat out of the base towards our secondary objective." stated Six, as if it was obvious to every casual observer.

"Are you crazy!? There is no point in going to the secondary objective. You'll be killed!" Sigma practically yelled at Six.

The Spartan shook his head before replying. "We were outnumbered on Reach several thousand to one, we were outnumbered against the flood and the Covenant on the Ark. We were outnumbered against the Prometheans on Requiem. For the entire war we faced insurmountable odds and always came out on top."

"This is different." stated Sigma, now he was slightly panicking.

"No it is not, it is our duty as Spartans to complete our objectives to protect and advance humanity, even if it means dying for it. We press on to complete our mission, a few hundred Covenant won't stand in our way, it didn't on Reach." stated Six, his voice filled with so much determination, that his body practically burned to be let loose on the Covenant like a rabid dog.

Six beamed at the idea of completing his mission, his hyper lethal status fueled by that drive, and any minor fatigue from previous fighting was now gone in an instant. Adrenaline filled his blood as the doors seemed to become slower and slower as they opened.

Only one word filled his subconscious mind; win.

That one word kept repeating itself in Six's mind as the doors opened further.

Win, win, WIN.

They knew where to go, the secondary objective must be accomplished, otherwise Six would fail himself in being a true Spartan… that cannot happen.

It WILL not happen.

"Give them hell." Was all Six said before the two Spartans became blurs in the storm of plasma.

Sigma was panicking; Six and Jun are going to get themselves killed. He did not care how the Spartans survived Reach and the rest of the war. Sigma did not care if this was just another mission for the Spartans. No one is invincible, not even Noble Team. Although this Forerunner artifact has the potential to send humanity decades into whatever technology it was, Sigma did not think for one solitary second that it was worth the lives of the remaining Noble Team members.

But Sigma knew better than to try to press further and convince the Spartans to not press on; it was like telling a Spartan to give up, and Spartans never give up. He could only watch and hope that they make it out of this in one piece. Sigma wanted to desperately signal the Infinity to move in and wipe out the Covenant to save Noble Team but he couldn't. The command and control center is still operational until the reactor explodes, any attempts of communication to the Infinity will alert the Covenant fleet which is exactly what they don't want to do. They were truly alone, unlike all those other times where Six and Jun were backed up by other Spartans, elites, or a platoon of marines. No, they were truly alone.

Jun was making short work of the Covenant troops that he picked off with his rifle, opting to target the more dangerous threats first. Six was a blur as his limbs worked tirelessly, mutilating Covenant troops in hand to hand combat or pumping their bodies full of lead.

Sigma has seen the two Spartans fight dozens of times destroy entire platoons or even companies, and even board and destroy ships. But this? This was amazing; they were cutting down dozens of Covenant troops as they began making their way towards the secondary objective. Sigma for a second thought that maybe this wasn't as bad as he anticipated… until he saw the Covenant's response to the massacre.

"Noble Team, the Covenant have 4 wraiths coming in from the West!" exclaimed the AI, his emotional capacitors overwhelmed with dread and worry.

"Noble Six, however, couldn't care less. "Jun, cover me, I'll deal with the wraiths." The Spartan didn't wait for a response, he simply sprinted to the left of the tank platoon, while avoiding an overwhelming amount of plasma fire from the slowly advancing Covenant infantry.

The hyper lethal reloaded his rocket launcher mid sprint, circled behind the wraiths, and fired twice. Each anti tank rocket impacted the rear of a wraith; their weak points, and plunged their HEAT warhead payload into the alien tanks. Both vehicles erupted into a fantastic display of blue and purple flames as smoke rose rapidly into the air.

The remaining two wraiths turned to face the Spartan as he reloaded his rocket launcher.

If Sigma had a heart, he'd probably have a heart attack right now.

"Jun, do something." Sigma panicked.

The calm slavic accent of Jun responded. "Relax Sigma, I got this."

Sigma wondered what the sniper had planned. His question was answered as four sniper shots slammed into the rear engine compartment of the left most wraith. Thanks to Jun's supernatural accuracy, all four rounds hit the exact same point on the engine, guaranteeing penetration. The wraith did not explode, but its engine was disabled and the wraith's anti gravity capabilities shut off. The massive vehicle fell to the ground with a massive thump.

Sigma observed as Six loaded his last two rockets, took aim at the last wraith, and fired twice. A single rocket cannot kill a wraith from the front, but two can if the hit the exact same point of the armor.

Sigma watched as the two missiles soared towards the wraith at frightening speeds.

The first rocket impacted the armor, severely denting and weakening it for the second rocket, which pierced the armor and the inner components were blown to pieces. The wraith became of wonderful blue and purple bonfire.

"Well done Spartans, now move!." Sigma sighed, that was close; those two wraiths could have vapourized Six easily. Sigma watched as Six's shields blinked off from the prolonged plasma fire the AI panicked when a plasma bolt struck Six's armor. He calmed down when he realized that that single bolt didn't do much to faze the Spartan, the heat dispersion coating melted off but the armor didn't really change aside from that.

"You need to be careful Six, that stunt with the wraiths was stupid." Sigma sighed knowing what he said fell on deaf ears. Six tends to put himself in danger a lot more than what is necessary. Always willing to sacrifice himself no matter what. Sigma worried for him a lot. I hope you know what you are doing Six'. thought Sigma as he watched Noble Team retreat to the small canyon.

Sigma then remembered something. "Six why haven't you detonated the explosive traps." asked Sigma, wondering why the trap has not been utilized.

"Just wait for it Sigma." assured Six as he turned around to open fire on the Covenant infantry.

As if to answer Six's assurance, about 8 wraiths loomed over a small hill and continued along the dirt road parallel to the citadel. Sigma observed the vehicles as the first one passed over the closest trap to the Spartans.

"Now Sigma." ordered Six calmly, not caring in the slightest at the magnitude of destruction that was about to befall the unlucky Covenant forces.

"Detonating right now." confirmed the AI.

The ground shook, as if the tectonic plates have shifted underneath the Spartans. A massive explosion rocked the Covenant forces, sending smoke and shrapnel skyhigh.

The wraiths were obliterated into tiny pieces of metal and dozens of Covenant infantry were incinerated in the blast.

Sigma was impressed with the unorthodox tactics of the super soldiers, but realized that it still was not enough; there was just too many of them.

"ETA on reactor detonation is 2 minutes, fallback NOW." shouted the AI with a force that he usually doesn't possess.

Both Spartans wordlessly spun around and sprinted at an amazing speed of 90km/h, MJOLNIR allowed for even higher speeds to be attained, but the large amount of strain would result in a torn achilles tendon, a Spartan could easily handle this pain, but it's better to maintain the most amount of combat efficiency possible.

Sigma's 'eyes' widened when he realized that the reactor would explode in 15 seconds. "Noble Team get behind something NOW." the Spartans the Spartans complied instantly and dove behind a massive rock. They both polarized their visors to protect their eyes from the blinding light that is to come.

An incredibly bright flash, bright enough to rival the sun, bore through their visors and blinded them temporarily like a flashbang. A massive shockwave knocked both Spartans to their backs and the next thing that followed was a bang that would have probably ruptured their ear drums had they been closer. The flash died down and a blanket of black smoke covered the sky. Chunks of rock was thrown everywhere and even a portion of the canyon was obliterated.

Sigma detected no signs of life from what used to be a base. "All of them are dead Noble Team, the secondary objective is 3 klicks to the East."

Without of a word, Noble Team pressed on into the unknown, without so much as a glance at the destruction behind them.

Noble Six was satisfied with the outcome of the primary objective; not only has Noble Team wiped out the only thing keeping the Covenant ground troops organized, but they also spelled their doom with the imminent arrival of the Infinity and her frigate escort.

The elimination of the defending battalion came as a bonus.

"Infinity actual, this is Noble actual, how copy over?" Six wanted to make sure that the Infinity was enroute to their position; the Covenant is sure to send troops their way, that explosion definitely got their attention.

Six heard Lasky's voice instead of the communications officer which surprised him. "Infinity actual copies, I assume that since you are communicating with us, the main objective has been neutralized?" asked Lasky in a flat voice that already knew the answer to the question.

Six and Jun stopped; they were only 500 meters from the secondary objective location. "Yes sir, Noble Team is oscar mike to secondary objective."

"Copy that Noble, UAV recon suggests at company sized defence force around the secondary objective with more hostiles massing 50 klicks on all sides, ETA on Infinity's arrival is 30 mikes, how copy over?"

Six grimaced; they had to face down hundreds of Covenant for 30 minutes before support arrived.

"Noble Team copies sir, we will clear out the enemy camp and assume a defensive posture until the Infinity arrives."

There was a pause, and Six thought he heard a sigh. "Understood Noble actual, good luck." Lasky went silent, they were on their own again.

Sigma spoke up. "Six, this is suicide that is too much time you have to spend facing down an army."

Noble Six wasn't having none of it. "Sigma, it matters not the magnitude of the enemy, nor the low chances of survival. What matters is the completion of the mission objective, and the preservation of the rest of the team. We go where the enemy is the greatest because we are the best, this is just another mission Sigma, all of my missions have been considered suicide anyways." Sigma sighed in defeat.

"Just worried about you Six." was all Sigma said before going silent.

"Status Jun?" asked Six as he checked his own weapons, making sure all mission personnel and equipment is performing at peak efficiency.

"Green." replied Jun.

The two Spartans arrived at ground level and faced the camp, its forces spread out on all angles

Six got straight to the point. "Sigma, what is the magnitude of the defence force and ETA of enemy reinforcements?"

A second passed before Sigma replied. "I estimate about 100 light infantry units defending the camp. ETA of enemy reinforcements is about 10 minutes.

"Shock and awe tactics are required to quickly clear the camp before the enemy arrives. This shouldn't be difficult considering the lack of vehicles and specialized or heavy infantry." said Jun as Six considered his strategy.

"I agree, we need to do this quickly, pick them off from a distance before closing in." ordered Six as he shouldered his DMR.

Jun chuckled. "With pleasure."

"Sigma, keep monitoring the Covenant forces for any changes in movement."

"Understood." replied Sigma as he dove back into the Covenant's battlenet.

Jun waited for Six to give the command, barely able to keep the finger off his trigger as he scoped in on an ultra elite; the company's commander.

"Weapons free." was all that the lone wolf said before opening up with a storm of precise fire, downing a squad of unprepared grunts right after Jun placed a tungsten bullet right between the eyes of the camp commander.

The Covenant defenders did not know it yet, but they're already dead.

Sigma was currently analyzing the Covenant's battlenet for any intel not yet known to Noble Team and found nothing.

Satisfied, Sigma began to think about Six.

'Why is he so willing to put himself in danger like this just to complete a secondary objective?'

Sigma has been with Six for the past 4 years, and he has learned a lot about the quiet Spartan. Sigma noticed that Six only talks often in the presence of Jun; the only other survivor of Noble Team.

HIGHCOM and ONI haven't been forthcoming when it came to giving up files on Noble Six. Being a former Spartan III black ops hitman for ONI that doesn't officially exist tends to do that to one's personal file. Almost his entire file has been inked out.

Sigma did however remember Cortana passing on a few files about the hyper lethal to him once; she was much better at hacking into ONI databases, despite the obvious act of hostility, she herself did not like ONI either.

Sigma read through Six's file many times. Although his homeworld is classified, Six was born on 2531 and recruited into the Spartan III program on 2537 at the age of 6. Six became an active Spartan at the age of 12 on 2543.

'What the hell? Only 12?' Sigma could not believe what he was reading; Six was fighting a genocidal alien empire at the age of 12. Similarly ONI sent 12 year old augmented supersoldiers on a suicide mission as expendable Spartans. Sigma didn't believe that ONI could get anymore unethical… until he read this.

Sigma's emotional capacitors overloaded with so much anger, that if it was thermal energy, it would make the glassing of Reach look like a campfire in comparison to a supernova.

Sigma couldn't reveal this information to anyone however. It would result in a political shitstorm the likes of which humanity has never seen before, not to mention the blood hungry citizens out for ONI's blood. It just wasn't worth it.

The AI continued reading. Spartan Kurt-051 disagreed with wasting these Spartans on suicide missions and secretly pulled out Spartans too valuable to be wasted, such as Six and the other Spartan IIIs of Noble Team.

Noble Six prefered to work alone, he was utilized by ONI to carry out covert missions which included assassinations and sabotage. Six has made entire groups of rebels and Covenant disappear without a trace.

His first team was actually Noble Team; Spartans just like him, his brothers and sisters in arms.

That's why he cared so much for them.' though Sigma as he continued reading. Six isn't used to losing teammates especially Spartans. Six believes it is his mission to protect Noble Team as well as humanity. His drive to win strengthened that, he wanted to complete all of his missions while simultaneously ensuring Noble's survival and the survival of innocent humans.

'He is overworking himself, Six doesn't understand that there will be casualties and that he can't always control that outcome."

Six is only 27, but his combat experience is something you'd expect from a grizzled drill sergeant that has seen at least 30 years of combat.

Sigma scrolled through the file some more; Six's family was apparently slaughtered in front of him by Covenant elites.

'That explains his fierce hatred for Covenant or anything that goes against the peace of humanity, his drive for success is incredible.' Sigma understood why Six is willing to do all of this.

Mike wants to redeem himself for the loss of Noble, he wants to fulfill his duty of being humanity's protector, a Spartan. He wants to see the enemies of Humanity's peace burn, so that no one must suffer the way he did.

Sigma felt pity for the Spartan on a level that he's never felt before.

Before Sigma continued however, he checked the progress of the Covenant reinforcements and almost had a panic attack overload his senses; they were a minute out.

The AI checked Noble's progress and realized they cleared out the Covenant troop a minute and a half ago.

Sigma mentally cursed himself for being so lost in his investigations and warned Noble.

"ETA on enemy reinforcements is 1 minute." Sigma sighed; they had to hold out against insurmountable odds for 21 minutes.

Sigma could only watch, as the tide of aliens rushed forward to consume the Spartans.

Spartan B312 checked his motion tracker and was satisfied when it came clean. It didn't take them long to wipe out the company of aliens troops. The grunts and jackals were easily picked off from long and medium range while the handful of elite minors didn't last long. Jun however was hit twice by a plasma rifle with his shields down. Thankfully the damage was marginal, only two small dents on his chestplate.

"ETA on enemy forces is 1 minute." stated his trusty AI as Six began to check his weapons once more.

"Copy that Sigma. Jun gather enemy weapons and stack them in front of the objective building." ordered Six to which Jun only nodded before heading out.

The Forerunner artifact was inside of a Covenant temple structure, they still interpreted the Forerunners as gods. The artifact was locked inside some sort of large containment device but its presence was confirmed thanks to MJOLNIR's scanners.

Noble Team placed several Covenant weapons around the building to aid in their defence; their UNSC weapons almost out of ammo.

"Covenant troops sighted, they have us surrounded." reported Jun as the two Spartans positioned themselves in front of the temple's entrance.

"Weapons free, don't let them get close." Ordered Six as a well placed shot found purchase inside the skull of a jackal.

The two super soldiers opened fire, firing their precise weapons at a high rate of fire. To the casual observer, firing that quickly is impractical for precise shooting at long ranges. But the supernatural accuracy of the super soldiers would defy popular belief; not a single shot missed its mark. Jun's high powered rifle bored holes through the skulls of the elites while six mowed down the lighter armoured grunts and jackals, their body count now in the dozens from 5 minutes worth of shooting.

Sigma cursed. "4 hunters approaching from the south." Six turned to the left and saw the walking tanks running at a surprisingly fast speed for their size. The lone wolf looked down and shouldered a stolen Covenant fuel rod cannon.

The enemy opened fire.

A storm of inaccurate plasma fire saturated the Spartans' position, only a handful of the rounds hit their shields with little effect. Mike aimed at one of the hunters and fired his entire 5 round clip into the behemoth.

All 5 shots impacted the walking tank… it didn't die, its massive shield blocking a lot of the damage.

The hunter charged up its cannon, aimed at Six, and fired. The Spartan reacted automatically and dove out of the way as the green projectile flew past the temple and actually impacted near a group of grunts, the explosion killed a few of them.

The airborne Spartan landed with a roll and loaded the heavy weapon. Six aimed.. Only to see the other three hunters firing their weapons off. The titanium soldier rolled… no use.

Two of the shots flew by the Spartan, but a third impacted about 3 meters in front of the Spartan, knocking out his shields. The suppressive fire from the rest of the Covenant infantry impacting his armor. The burning sensation that followed would have been quite painful to any normal human, but Six didn't even flinch. The lone wolf crouched behind a Covenant barrier and examined his armor as his shields recharged; just a few burns and dents, good.

The Spartan rose from cover and aimed at the hunter once again. Trying a new tactic, the Spartan opened up with his weapon, the shots landed underneath the hunter, that way its heavy shield wouldn't block the damage. It had its desired effect as the hunter crumpled to the ground with a resounding thump.

Before the rounds even impacted its target, Six was already reloaded and firing at a second of the walking tanks… it met the same fate as the last.

Mike's fuel rod ran out, eliciting a sigh from the veteran as he cast aside the weapon and prepared to do what most would consider suicide.

"Six, you can't be serious." said Sigma; he knew what the Spartan was planning on doing.

"It's the only way." replied the stoic Spartan as he stood up from his cover.

With no heavy weapons and limited ammo with his fellow Spartan at risk from the hunter pair, Six had to get up close and personal with these walking tanks; very dangerous even for a Spartan. The 2 ton shields they carry can cut a Spartan in half easily.

"Six?" questioned Jun, his voice tinged with a little worry.

"I'll take care of the hunters, maintain fire on the rest of the enemy." Six's monotone voice boomed over the comms, filled with determination as the voice returned.

'Win, win, you are no Spartan if you can't win.' it said, rather harshly.

'I am a Spartan.' though Six as he inaudibly growled.

The massive super soldier dashed with a speed present only in the supernatural. The hyper lethal shot forward like a bullet and jumped over a horizontal swipe of a hunter's shield. The Spartan placed his gauntlets on the hunter's 'shoulders' mid flight and performed a cartwheel on top of the hunter, much to the awe of the enemy, some of them even stopped firing to watch the spectacle... Jun didn't.

Six now having performed his magnificent maneuver, latched onto the spikes on the walking tank's back like a tick. The giant lekgolo colony thought fast and turned its back, along with the Spartan, towards its bond brother who was already charging its cannon.

Six anticipated such a possibility and jumped off of the hunter as the bright green projectile flew over him. It impacted all of the exposed worms on the back of the hunter, its heat practically vaporizing a huge portion of the walking colony. The massive combatant face planted as the nimble Spartan landed on his feet and side stepped the downwards strike of the second hunter, its massive shield shook the ground a little as it impacted the desert floor. The hyper lethal moved to the rear of the large opponent and withdrew a plasma grenade captured from fallen Covenant defenders.

He primed the grenade and used his strength to punch the grenade in between the lekgolo worms inside the hunter's armor.

The hunter swung its shield at the Spartan as Six rolled underneath the attack and jumped back to avoid the explosion.

There was a white and blue flash as several pieces of lekgolo worm was launched in all directions from the force of the blast. The armor simply fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes being too heavy for the shockwave to move.

"That was amazing." came the awed voice of Sigma, not quite expecting Six to dispatch a pair of hunters so quickly in close quarters combat.

The Covenant that stopped firing joined the rest of their brethren in attempting to gun down the Spartans as they advanced closer.

Six evaded some of the fire and joined Jun in their regular defensive posture.

The Covenant drew closer.

"This isn't looking good Six, at this rate, they'll pile on top of us." stated Jun in a disapproving voice.

"Just need to keep them at a good distance to prevent that." came the quick reply of Six between precise shots that demoralized the enemy.

The tide approached closer and unwavering in the face of supernatural accuracy and invincible determination.

The plasma fire intensified and became more accurate. Six switched to a Covenant carbine and used its higher rate of fire and larger magazine size to mow down even more enemies, even though it did less damage than his high powered dmr, all it took was one shot to the head to end an unshielded enemy.

Jun found himself in the same boat as Six and utilized a Covenant beam rifle to similar effect; wiping out the shielded Covenant elites.

With the amount of non stop shooting, Six estimated a combined body count of well over 200. Their kill rate,however, diminished rapidly as the storm of plasma fire intensified and kept the super soldiers in cover more often.

"Sigma, what's the ETA on reinforcements?" asked Six in his normal calm and emotionless voice despite the perilous situation of Noble Team.

"10 minutes, I hope you two have it in you to hold out for that long." said Sigma as he silently observed the Covenant forces.

Six simply grunted in response - the voice returned. 'You are the sword and shield of humanity, born from the ashes of war to carry the burden of billions. You are the indestructible driving force with the sole purpose of serving Earth and all of her colonies. You are destined to do so, you are destined to WIN.'

Time slowed down to almost a crawl, the Spartan's weapon switched to targets so fast that it was nothing but a blur. Six downed enemies at an unprecedented rate, supporting his hyper lethal designation.

Many of the closer Covenant warriors stopped firing for a second; not quite believing what they were seeing.

The tide continued.

"Out of ammo, switching to a new weapon." Came the now distant voice of Jun. Six heard it, but did not acknowledge it; his mind focused on redemption.

"You have faced insurmountable odds and succeeded in rekindling humanity's fire, you have won against the destroyers of your species, you have won against the parasite, and you have won against opponents eons more knowledgeable in weapons of war than you. You will continue to win, in Noble Team's honour. The fallen's flame will be carried by the champion.'

Six's adrenal glands pumped more and more adrenaline into his bloodstream as the tide of enemies weaken beneath his might.

The tide continued unperturbed.

But the lone wolf did not give up… he never will.

"Enemy Wraith approaching from the East." Sigma informed.

Six saw the wraith looming towards them, it lazily floated towards Noble's position. The tank stopped, aimed its plasma mortar upwards, and fired. The blue plasma projectile sailed over the battlefield.

Six tracked the projectile and realized its point of impact…

"Jun, move now!" Six's voice boomed over the gunfire.

The tide was too quick, too great.

Jun evaded out of the way… no use. The resulting explosion was only 5 meters away from Jun but it did not matter as the concussive force sent the half ton Spartan sailing through the air.

"Jun? Jun!" beckoned the lone wolf as he blurred towards the downed Spartan. Six approached the sniper and grimaced; Jun's armor was scorched and melted to the point where it was barely recognizable.

"S-Six." managed the sniper in a weak voice.

"Jun, I'll get you out of here." assured Six.

"No, that won't be happening, my vitals are red, I won't make it." Six couldn't believe his ears or eyes.

"Jun! It was my job to protect Noble, my job to ensure you survived." Six's voice tinged with anger. 'I didn't fail… no I CAN'T FAIL.' Six all but screamed mentally.

Jun looked up at the lone wolf. "I know what you are thinking, you didn't fail, y-you can't always control the o-outcome of the mission." managed Jun, his voice getting weaker by the second.

"Jun… Mendez once told me that 'you don't win unless your team does.' I won't leave without you." Six's voice was filled with the sadness only a Spartan would recognize.

Jun took his dog tags out of his pouch and placed it in the lone wolf's hand, who gently held it in his massive hand as if the slightest twitch would shatter it into a million pieces.

Jun chuckled. "That's true but even in death I'll win alongside you, all of Noble Team will win with you, remember that." those words hit Six like a wraith.

"Your are not dying brother, I won't allow it." Six raised his voice.

The tide was almost at their doorstep. The fire never stopped.

Jun coughed, his voice significantly weaker as his visor stared into Mike's. "You may be a S-Spartan… but you are still… h-human, and humans make mistakes." Mike was dumbstruck.

"Jun-" the sniper stopped him with his last parting words before departing into the afterlife. "It has been an h-honour, Mike." The sniper went limp in the arms of the man who swore to shield him from death.

A million thoughts a second pulsed through his head like a plasma projector. Noble Team is gone… the brothers and sisters that gave him not only a deeper purpose to fight; but real emotion, like happiness… they gave him humanity. Six had a family, not of blood, but one of like minded courage and mentality that served and suffered like him to be the sword and shield of humanity.

Now it was all gone…

The only people he ever had a true relationship with are now dead. Slain at the hands of the foe that he swore revenge upon when they slaughtered his real family before his very eyes on the one evening from a life he could hardly remember. They died because of them, they died because HE wasn't good enough.

"Six.. keep it together, the Covenant is closing in you have to-." Sigma's voice, barely audible, was now cut off as the lone wolf's mind whirred, time slowed down as impossible levels of rage pulsed through his body.

Mike remembered now. He remembered the training and the suffering they endured. Mike remembered little children either scared out of their minds or radiating with the heat of anger towards the butcherers of their families; the sole reason they volunteered to become Spartans. He remembered their first mission; fall from the sky and be worthy, or succumb to cowardice and be cast aside like a worn out tool. The endless equations, and theories, the countless hours, spent firing thousands of rounds at inanimate objects to perfect supernatural aim. He remembered his fellow brothers and sisters, how he was an outcast among them. The pain, the verbal assaults, the inspiration, the augmentations… his brothers and sisters, no older than twelve, sent to their deaths on a suicide mission while Mike himself was pulled out and saved. He appeared from the shadows, and killed the foes of humanity, leaving their corpses in the light as he vanished in the darkness. Mike remembered a team of Spartans that conquered thousands, men and women that he swore to protect, die one by one… he failed. He was alone again, just like he used to be.

Mike couldn't form a coherent thought, he was so overcome with rage that the thermal energy would rival the nuclear fission of a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon. His rage consuming him like a fire as he stood unmoving, staring into Jun's corpse. What once made Six even remotely human was gone now, the only thing that could make him shine an emotion is gone. His gauntlets groaned with the incredible pressure as Mike clenched his fists.

He didn't want anything but the enemy to die, and die they would.

Sigma was panicking; Six was having an episode of rage at the death of Jun. Sigma is aware of the fact that Six was prone to such episodes, but the descriptions he read of it is quite terrifying. These episodes, tend to be caused by the loss of Noble Team members or the witnessing of innocents being slaughtered. Records only state that this has happened 1-3 times… with terrifying results. Apparently, ONI is quite paranoid of the public knowing that some Spartans can automatically turn into psychotic killing machines.

Sigma tried to calm the Spartan. "Six, calm down it's not worth losing your composure, it will get you killed and then what? You'd fail yourself."

No response, the Spartan didn't move a nanometer, it was as if the lone wolf is frozen in time. But Sigma knew the truth; on the inside, his neural network lit up like a supernova, Sigma has never seen his neural network like this before… it scared him.

"Six you have to listen to me please, don't let yourself get consumed like this, you're better than that." pleaded Sigma, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Suddenly, the armoured man stood up to face the tide, they numbered in the hundreds, most of them having closed in at a medium range when the Spartan mourned Jun. Six clenched his fists so hard, that Sigma thought MJOLNIR would shatter underneath Mike's might.

The AI closed his eyes, in one way, he felt bad for the Covenant, they were about to witness something none of them would expect. But he was also worried about Six; his emotions turned him into a suicidal warrior.

The lone wolf took a step forward

"Please hurry Lasky." whispered Sigma as Six stared down an entire army… again.

"You are but mere flesh and blood, your mechanical composure betrays a feeling of vengeance and hatred towards the enemy of those you protect." The Gravemind's voice rumbled inside of the head of the super soldier, now lost in his anger.

It took an unfathomable amount of emotion to get a Spartan to crack. The amount of emotion Six is experiencing is defined as thus; unprecedented, unfathomable, and unimaginable.

Mike lost everything, all of his friends and family were butchered by the Covenant, his childhood replaced by military training, his home planet that he doesn't even know was more than likely glassed. Now… Noble Team was gone, and he couldn't bear the burden of billions back on Reach, he failed.

The Spartan was a fusion reactor of rage as he stood up and looked upon the sea of enemies - no… victims, they would pay dearly for this.

'You are the sword and shield of humanity, you will bear the burden of billions and withstand the might of millions. You are a Spartan, the best of the best, an unimaginable godlike warrior with a fire in your heart that shines out to all of humanity. The light of the fire is their guidance to you; their shepherd, their protector.' The voice of Spartan Kurt did not stop, and with every word did Mike feel guilt and failure, and with every word did he feel anger.

The Master Chief's voice was suddenly heard in Six's head. 'A soldier should not be commended for doing what is expected, but performing their duty and going above and beyond to ensure the completion of the mission.'

Mike let his head hang and just stared into the ground until a voice called him; an elite, the enemy.

"Demon, you are surrounded and alone, you have committed crimes against the Covenant and hereby must be punished. Surrender and suffer our wrath or we will kill you where you stand you demonic abomination." its voice was filled with hatred, the zealot donned its energy sword and attempted to bore a hole through Mike's visor.

Six growled loud enough for some of the troops to take an unconscious step back.

"Were it so easy." was the only sentence that came out of the Spartan's mouth before he was finally consumed with white hot rage.

"Six listen to me, you need to retreat, the Infinity will arrive in eight minutes." The voice was distant, as if it came from halfway across the world.

Mike crouched and in each hand held a plasma rifle. The Covenant fired, but time came to a sudden crawl.

Spartan time.

His rage and adrenaline fueling his reflexes to an unprecedented level, the bolts of Plasma moving slow enough for the Spartan to count.

He then lunged at the leader who dared accuse him of crime. Six moved so fast in his emotional state, that he was nothing more than a black and gold streak as he zoomed across the one hundred meter distance in the time it would take to blink a few times.

The Spartan collided with the force of a freight train. The shields of the zealot shattered in an instant as armor broke and bones were pulverized, the alien's vital organs all but mush. Needless to say… it wasn't getting back up.

The hyper lethal aimed his plasma rifles in either direction and fired. The storm of plasma cut down his enemies with terrifying ease as his weapons impacted the heads of his enemies, the unshielded ones going down in an instant. Mike was a blur at all times, diving from cover to cover and running past enemies, some of them even being hit with friendly fire in the confusion and fear.

The soldier's body worked in autopilot as he swatted aside grunts, jackals, and even elites with ease; his rage and adrenaline mixed into a terrifying cocktail of death that allowed Six to acquire strength that he has never had before.

The hyper lethal lunged at a pair of hunters, jumping over one of the twelve foot tall behemoths and punched a plasma grenade into the walking colony… the little pieces of lekgolo was a nice addition to the death on the battlefield.

The second hunter swiped with its shield and the Spartan rolled. The walking tank brought the 2 ton shield down onto the Spartan, hoping to flatten the demon… only to realize its arm has stopped halfway to its target.

Mike was using his new strength to resist the unbelievable strength of the hunter. Normally, the Spartan couldn't hope to accomplish such a feat, but any limits were thrown out the airlock as the anger burned his insides like plasma would to metal.

The pressure increased on Six and a lot of his muscles were torn under the strain… but the Spartan didn't feel it.

"Victory is the key to redemption, you are nothing more than a freak experiment, a failure. You are weak, letting us die on Reach and getting me killed finally." Jun's angry voice echoed in the hyper lethal's head. Six roared with such force that it echoed across the entire battlefield, the Covenant having stopped firing on the demon as they watched in awe their destroyer match the strength of their heaviest class of shock troops.

His victims took a step or two backwards in fear. The broken Spartan rolled to the left as the shield impacted his last spot. Mike blurred and rammed into the hunter with the force of a MAC gun. He felt the wind being knocked out of him as the six ton hunter staggered back. Before it regained its footing, Six blurred again and appeared behind the hunter.

The lone wolf latched onto its back and used his supernatural strength to tear out handfuls of lekgolo worms, each strike weakening the massive opponent. The hunter struggled and struggled to no avail until it slumped to the ground from its wounds.

Like the grim reaper himself, Six's blood lust didn't falter. Before the Covenant could even register what happened, a pair of grenades soared through the air followed by a storm of plasma fire. The horrifyingly accurate barrage claimed the lives of at least a dozen grunts and jackals while the two grenades killed a dozen more.

The tide of Covenant were tightly packed which made it easier for the Spartan to inflict casualties upon them.

"Six, ETA on backup is 6 minutes." came a voice which the Spartan did not hear.

The voices the super soldier heard only existed in his head which drove his body to commit murder on a scale that the Covenant could not comprehend from a single being as he continued to cut down the enemy in the dozens.

"You are made to serve humanity, to win, and you only win when your team does."

That same quote repeated itself in the Spartan's head as he pushed himself harder to win.

A pair of sword wielding ultras rushed the Spartan with inhuman speed slowed down to a jog with his heightened reflexes. Six blurred again and at the last second spun around until his back faced the ultras. The Spartan jumped and performed a backflip over his opponents. Said opponents watched in awe as the Spartan locked on to them and in mid flip unloaded both plasma rifles into one of the ultras, it collapsed without a sound.

The last warrior roared in anger and charged at the demon… he didn't get far.

Mike rolled out of the way of more plasma fire but failed; at this range the sheer amount of guns pointing his way ensured many hits. His shields went down and his armor became deformed from the plasma, the immense heat the Spartan felt was merely ignored. In fact it pushed the Spartan to fight harder, pain is like inspiration to a Spartan. Six acquired and activated the two energy swords from his most recent victims. Most of the warriors stepped back as Mike brandished the two terrifying weapons.

Six crouched down slightly then vanished… his active camo ensuring that no one would see the incoming death that was calling for their blood. Six now rushed forward and began cutting down the enemy two at a time. An elite having estimated his position had turned around to open fire only to realize it was missing its arm that held the weapon, there was a bright flash of white and he knew no more.

Mike's active camo wore off and he was instantly struck by more plasma fire. Ignoring the blaring warnings from his armour, the Spartan rushed from cover to cover and began downing more enemies. A pair of elites moved in to the left of the Spartan in order to flank the demon. Six anticipated this and ducked low as one of them swung its weapon at the man. Six blurred and his fist connected with the rib cage of the opponent, followed by six more strikes in the span of a few milliseconds, needless to say, the unfortunate elite, was sent off to its great journey fairly early.

He moved to engage the second elite but was struck from behind by another minor. Several of these aliens wanted to get up close and personal with Mike. The Spartan would easily oblige; the mission mattered, nothing more, and he already failed his mission of ensuring Noble Team survive.

He would not fail again, Six had to correct that.

The Spartan ignored the plasma fire and warning alarms from his armor and became a streak of gold and black. From the eyes of a spectator, they'd see elites of different rank being ripped apart and pulverized by a blur that resonated in the middle of the now dead warriors.

The Covenant met this terror with an insurmountable storm of plasma Six staggered back and without his shields finally fell to the ground, his weakened state preventing him from really being able to fight.

"You failed, and like the failure you are, you will die a coward's death." Six's anger attempted to rouse his injured body, but even that didn't work. The Spartan's injuries were too great, even greater than on Reach.

A zealot dragged its energy sword along the ground, its heat melting the rock to lava. It stopped just 4 feet from the Spartan

"You have fought well demon, but for your crimes, you will be executed, you demonic spawn." Spoke the warrior in a deep voice that all but quivered in rage.

Before the zealot could even raise its energy sword however, dozens of drop pods struck to ground, followed by dozens of pelicans. The drop pods popped open and out emerged dozens of Spartan IVs. The lesser super soldiers automatically opened fire on the Covenant, their large numbers ensuring that the Covenant were cut down with ease

The pelicans circled about the battlefield and unleashed hell with their 30 mm twin miniguns. One of the transports landed right next to the wounded lone wolf, the door to the troop bay opened and revealed Spartan IVs and a team of medics.

"Hurry, get him on board." shouted a male medic amidst the sounds of war. The Spartans effortlessly loaded the Six onto the pelican. The doors closed and the dropship ascended.

Noble Six tried to stay awake, but passed out from his injuries and blood loss.

"You are a failure." was the last thing the hyper lethal heard before passing out.

Line Here

Hey guys, this was the first chapter of my very first story EVER so please be nice. I would appreciate any and all constructive criticism. Big shoutout to Gatekeeper333, I'd like to thank him for inspiring me to embark on this journey of making my story a reality. Please read his story "The Spartan Effect", it is leagues ahead of what I have. Anyways, this chapter was much, much longer than I anticipated (though from my experience, I've learned that more is better). I hope to get the next chapter out soon but I have to do research on the Mass Effect universe first, since it is not as refined as my knowledge of Halo. Plus school is a pain as well, not to mention the future job that I hope to have. I will try to keep all of my chapters at a minimum of 10,000 words if you guys were wondering about that. Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoyed!